Assassins Among The Elements
by Myevltwin
Summary: Finding himself in a world unknown to him, unsure and confused. Given a second chance at life but never leaving the path of blood. This new world has shadows like his old one... He will become apart of these shadows that watch a world of elements from the
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

_**All stories are entirely fan made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive,disgusting,inhuman,wrong or just don't like. We are not liable for what so ever. ****You are reading the stories posted here of your own free will. We are not forcing you to stay here and read it. If you don't like it then leave and please re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respective owners. We do not claim anything that is not our own Creation and are merely using them for a fan made none profit story.**_

Chapter 1

Sapphire blue eyes shined brightly in the darkness. The moon hung overhead, red and ripe like an apple.

For the past one hundred years a great war was being fought, one that seemed to never end. It was considered the bloodiest war that had ever taken place. Disorder ran through the cities as the advancing troops of the dreaded Nation marched on their lands and took and destroyed and rapped without mercy. In the opening of the war, thousands were brutally murdered. The war itself was a testament to their trust and faith in the power of the celestial being that was chosen through the cycle of the four elements that the people controlled.

The Fire Nation, the strongest and most technological among the four elements did as their element did; they spread like a wildfire. The people of the Fire Nation controlled the element of fire and were able to bend it to their will through the art of Firebending, a dangerous and deadly art of combat. This single nation went and challenged the rest of the world, first taking out the Air Nomads; a peaceful group of Airbenders. The reason they were hit first was because of the cycle of the Avatar, who, after dying, would be reborn as an Air Nomad. They were whipped out in a single day.

From there they moved to the Earth Kingdom, striking hard and fast against considerably the strongest Nation. They were able to drive them to their knees, but this nation was strong and for the last one hundred years had put of a valiant fight against them. Their last bastion of hope resided in the great city of Ba Sing Sa. But even this great city was being attacked by tactical minds so far above them that they were fearful that it would collapse. They were in luck after the famed Dragon of the West lost his son and also lost his reason for fighting.

When the war had first started no one really came to help. Treaties were assigned, but the Avatar, a wise, spiritual, and powerful man gifted with the ability to bend all four elements and speak with the spirits, was the real cornerstone to all of this. Nations spoke out, rose up, and challenged him or her because they wanted to fight and take land that didn't belong to them. The Avatar was tasked with fighting these advances off by any possible means. But with the previous Avatars' death, the Fire Nation was able to run amok, striking at the next nation to have him.

The Earth Kingdom got very little help from anyone. The people of the Northern and Southern Water Tribes were isolated by vast oceans and were slow to respond, near causing the defeat of the Earth Kingdom in several areas. But taking soldiers from their main cities had also cost them. The Fire Nation had planned on this and attacked without mercy against them as well. It took time, but the Northern Water Tribe was soon brought to their knees and their fabled Waterbending, an art of combat, was lost. No more Waterbenders lived in the Northern Water Tribe.

The Southern Water Tribe was a different story. They didn't get attacked day after day. It took time for the Fire Nation to get to them. Spread too thin, the element of surprise was lost and they could do nothing against them. Water was the natural enemy to fire. They could do nothing but sit back and poke at them from time to time.

After decades of fighting, the face of the war changed to the faces of the young. They were manipulated into believing that the war they were fighting was for peace and to share their greatness with the world. The sad truth was that the Fire Lord that had started the war truly saw it as that. He wanted to share their greatness with the world. But peace was not without danger and misunderstanding. He started the war, using the idea of sharing greatness and peace as a way to take better land and minerals and food.

But as the face of the war changed, so too did the tactics.

Mercenaries, soldiers that didn't like the way the battles were being fought, kids that lost their families to the war, adventures and bandits, all created groups that would work for money or whatever they could get their hands on to fight the good fight, some siding with the Fire Nation. Guerilla warfare became the norm. These mercenaries that had no combat training fought in ways that both annoyed and frightened everyone that had to deal with them. These groups were able to deal crippling blows to the Fire Nation, tripling their supply chain by cutting them off at keys points, destroying munitions factories and other key things that they had set up. They did the jobs that no General wanted to send his soldiers on.

Among all the groups that fought against them, Assassins were the most feared. Silent, deadly, precise, and had a base of operations that no one knew of, they were the real threat in the night against anyone. They took jobs on both sides, mostly siding against the Fire Nation. They worked in pairs and small teams, capable of doing what no ordinary soldier or bender could do. They took back towns, pushed back advancing lines, and killed political figureheads that stuck their heads out too far. In less than a year they had done what no other organization could achieve; total fear of all nations.

But they were always at risk with other things. A war always had rules. The world itself was based on rules. But these rules were never heeded. A rule to not kill healers on the battlefield was easily ignored just as killing innocent civilians was. Assassins may have been feared, but they were hated on both sides for one very important reason: they pinned the blame on others, innocent villagers and anyone else to cover their tracks. Morals were thrown out the window and stomped on by them. Assassins had no morals.

"_I'm taking out the target," _the sapphire eye teen thought.

"_I know. How many times must we go over it?" _His companion replied.

The sapphire eyed teen gave him a hard look and then looked back down at the village.

Morals were about to be broken again.

The Fire Nation had taken over this small little fishing village as a means of bringing in their forces and supplies that would then be transported via their tanks and other supply routes. This small fishing village had been taken over recently after the Earth Kingdom was forced to pull out. What few people remained were loyal only out of fear. This supply line itself was too strong and shortened the distance traveled to their siege line at Ba Sing Sa. This supply line had to fall or the walls of Ba Sing Sa were going to crumble in a matter of months. However, attacking them and killing the main set of guys in charge would lead to questions and speculations. This would then force them to turn their gaze upon the only people to do this: the people of the small town.

"_Morals are a thing of the past, Naruto, easily forgotten during war but always remembered at the end of it." _

"_Be silent, Zentrai," _Naruto hissed at him. Though they were connected mentally through his mental link, Naruto felt the need to silence him. Having someone in his head, and no Kyuubi, was always strange. He had enough voices in their already at times. He could go without anymore. _"I'll have this done in a matter of minutes. Just standby and get ready to evacuate after he's dead."_

Naruto emerged from the shadows and glanced up at the metal ship that sat anchored to the dock. It was a large and ugly thing, but it got all the jobs down they were slated with.

Naruto dropped into the water after taking a breath and began the slow process of swimming towards the entry point. All reports said that thing was manned by a crew of twenty. They'd be changing shifts for the night and perfect for boarding and assassination their target.

With the Avatar still dead, some saying that he had died when the Fire Nation destroyed all the Air Temples, it fell to the rest of the world to take up arms and stand against this treat. Some believed that he was alive, but Naruto doubted it. With the information network that they had they would have found him by now and he would be doing his job. This was his mess as far as Naruto was concerned. Even here there was no such thing as peace.

He emerged from the dark waters and shoved down on the water like he was pushing on solid earth. His ability to use Ninjutsu was shot. No longer could he use his Rasengan or the Senjutsu skills he had learned. His ability to walk on water and on stick to all objects remained, along with his famous Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, but the latter could only create a few. Henge was still possible, but he very seldom needed it. All other aspects of his chakra worked in enhancing his speed, endurance, and strength. So with him in the blind-spot of the ship he was easily able to not only stand on top of the water but also walk up the side of the ship without being detected.

Reaching the top, he looked around and spied only two guards with their backs to him. They were talking about something concerning the supply line when Naruto got behind them and slit their throats. He jumped over the edge of the boat and slowly took them down in the water that would now be their graves. Once he was topside he began climbing towards the bridge of the ship where the Captain was. He was a late worker from what their information said.

It didn't take Naruto long to find him. He was talking to one his men at the moment. It took ten minutes but he was eventually alone. Naruto took that moment to strike. It was very clear that the Captain saw him as he appeared behind in his final moments. Naruto was dressed like a shadow figure. He wore a white set of robes with a leather belt to hold it all together, long sleeves covered by thick leather armguards protected most of his forearm. His face was almost completely concealed by the small hood that covered his head. Were it not for his present angle the Captain might have never gotten the chance to see the face of his killer.

In the blink of an eye the knife was planted in his throat and yanked sideways to cut his jugular and throat wide open. He gurgled once, tried to hold it closed, but the deed was already done. A second strike, one to his heart, finished the job and he collapsed to the ground dead.

Naruto dropped the knife, leaving it as evidence to accuse the villagers. He didn't feel anything anymore. He'd been doing this for years. Anyone could grow used to anything.

Leaving the same way he came in, he felt the touch of Zentrai's mind in his own. _"Job's done. Let's get on the boat and get moving."_

"_How much are they paying us for this? Why don't we just kill him when we get there?"_

"_I'd rather not die before the war ends. And someone just as evil would take his place. Now saddle up. We've got a boat to catch and a Fire Lord to meet."_

Naruto gave the dead Captain one last look before he jumped out the window and began the long trip towards the docks that were thirty miles away. Their next job could very well be their last. Years of working for the Fire Nation and killing them was about to pay off. No one got a job to work for the Fire Lord, but they were recommended by famed Generals that had hired them for things that they wouldn't have their own men do. They were now given a chance to either end the war or continue letting it go just to get closer to the Fire Lord and end him.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

Chapter 2

Naruto gave Zentrai a sharp glare for his words as they moved onto the Fire Nation ship. Zentrai was smiling from ear to ear, something that was only caused when sex, women, or money was involved. His words, though unspoken, were still ringing through Naruto's head, much to his annoyance at the moment. _"You should keep your thoughts to yourself, Zentrai! Do you want everyone to know you're a telepath?"_

Zentrai just shrugged his shoulders and watched the guard escort them to their quarters aboard their ship. "They are to be treated like kings," the Fire Lord had said. "If they are unhappy, you will all perish in a sea of flames."

Naruto figured that Zentrai would try and get them to do strange things for his amusement. He'd already picked out two girls he wanted to have sex with just to say he banged a chick from every element. The fact that he was wooing them with his telepathy, something he was born with, wasn't the problem though. The problem was the fact that he was doing that and messing with every girl he came across. If it wasn't for the warning from the current Fire Lord, Naruto was certain his friend would be getting slapped and burned at the same time.

They were lead to a single room with two big beds. Clearly this ship was meant for their personal transport and nothing else. Although it was loaded with soldiers, none of them actually seem to be well endowed when it came to fighting. The two had asked for a demonstration earlier and were treated to two buffoons that had no idea what the basics were in Firebending. Although Naruto and Zentrai weren't Firebenders, they at least had some grasp on the concept of Firebending.

But the room was rather nice, although overly decorated for their liking. Fire emblems hand from the walls and the smooth surface beneath their feet was lined with wool in the form of a rug that stretched under both beds. It was nice to actually sleep on a bed rather than a futon in Naruto's mind. Plus it was even better that Zentrai didn't have a girl in his arms… yet.

"This is your room, Uzumaki." The man said politely and with a ting of fear in his voice. Naruto smirked and the man gulped. "If you need anything, please let me, or one of the servants, know and we will be happy to help." He bowed and took his leave, shutting the door on the way out.

Naruto shrugged and turned towards the closest bed. Of course Zentrai was already in it with his gear lying on the floor. Naruto shook his head and removed his cloak and hood, revealing long blond hair that had grown to the base of his neck. His bangs threatened to cover his eyes when he untied the band that held his hair in a ponytail. Tossing his bag to the side of the other bed, he plopped down and stared up at the ceiling.

"_You think the mission is to capture someone or kill someone," _Zentrai asked.

No matter how long Naruto had spent with him, his manner of speaking still creeped him out for two reasons. The first reason was that Kyuubi had always been some sort of a deterrent when it came to people that wanted in his mind. He remembered Orochimaru appearing in his mind and being shoved out. He even remembered Sasuke appearing in his mind and shutting down the Kyuubi. But even with all of that, his mind was still, or was supposed to be, not readable. And yet Zentrai could do it. But then again, he no longer held Kyuubi anymore.

Kyuubi was gone, but the power that it once held, the power that was now inside of him, was still Kyuubi's. His essence, his power, his traits still remained. When Naruto slept at night he could still here his laughter, his voice, and his irritated breathing from being caged. Naruto didn't even know why it was in him to be honest. But that didn't matter to him anymore. Kyuubi was gone, and he was here in this strange world that wasn't quite as strange as it once was.

The second reason is freaked him out was because of how well Zentrai could do it. It was natural to him, but it was a part of his legacy after all.

Zentrai was an odd person. Naruto remembered their first meeting. It was four years ago and Zentrai was actually considered a prodigy for his skills as a Magnetism-bender. He could levitate metal objects and throw them at people with remarkable speed. Naruto sometimes forgot that he actually was covered with small weapons that were kept razor sharp and weighed practically nothing. He was a very quiet person that did everything he was told. At the time though he was only sixteen and out on his own. That was four years ago and now he was… well there was no true way to describe him actually.

But his two abilities came with a price. He was a mute by nature. His vocal cords never developed, just like the rest of his people. During the first and second Avatars, a family of Firebenders and Earthbenders had come together and summoned a spirit to aid them in giving them a new power. The spirit, while the name was forgotten to all but time, had granted them this gift with a smile, stating that their first born children would have the gift that they had wanted. Nearly a year later, the first born came and had indeed inherited the gift of Magnetism-bending, but didn't have the ability to speak.

Angry, they re-summoned the spirit and demanded an explanation. The spirit replied that a power such as this must always come at a cost. For his bending and his talents as a bender, his vocal cords were destroyed before he was born. Grief stricken, the father, a Firebender, spent years trying to find a way to heal his son with no luck in sight. It was only by chance that his great-grandson, a young boy with a promising future, had managed to actually speak, but with his mind.

By utilizing the electromagnetic waves in his body, he was able to transfer his thoughts through the electromagnetic brain waves and became the first telepath. But not everyone looked kindly to this and his family, after years of talking like this, had been brought to their knees and killed off out of fear. But not all of them had died. The current Avatar had arrived and saved them, sheltering them from those that would wish them harm.

Knowing that it would be dangerous to be in a group, they split when they were old enough and died happily after having kids that soon roamed the world looking for their place in the world. With the mixture of blood that was passed from generation to generation, this ability had become something of a special gift that very few could unlock. The chances were about one in a hundred, if not a thousand. The Fire Nation had a better chance of having it in this army than the Water Tribes or Earth Kingdom did, but as of yet there had been no sighting of a Magnetism-bender other than Zentrai, and no one knew that he even was one.

Naruto gave his comrade a shrug as he watched him push a strand of his brown hair out of his chocolate brown eyes. "I have no idea," he said openly as the door was slowly opened. A worried looking guard stood in the doorframe, his eyes shifting between the two. "Make it fast or I'm going to kill you." Naruto said quietly. The guard hastily jumped out of the way as two very large animals walked, one o them soaked with blood while the other held what looked like a human arm. "Shibaru, Rai, where have you been?"

The two animals quickly replied by jumping onto their masters. Shibaru jumped on top of Zentrai, covering him in blood, much to Naruto's amusement. Shibaru and Rai were both the size of Akamaru, Kiba's company. However, they both looked different. Shibaru had a dog appearance, with thick brown fur and two long bones that stuck up from her shoulder blades. The brown fur followed around the two appendages and masked the bones with a thin layer of flesh. White markings ran over her hips, front legs, and parts of her head, almost as if bone were not covered entirely by her flesh. Her tail was puffy and sometimes looked like it was made of three tails rather than one. And around her paws, her fur was long and floated upwards like a flame. The only thing about her that wasn't dog like were the two long whiskers that came down from the back of her jaw line and the unusual large ears that looked cat like. Add on the strange glowing white eyes, and it was no wonder the guard was somewhat frightful of her.

And as for Rai, whom now sat before Naruto with the human arm in his mouth, it was easy to understand just why anyone would be frightful of him. He was more cat like with white fur, long ears, two massive fangs that stuck out of his mouth, glowing red eyes, and red bones that actually stuck out of his flesh, three on the front legs, one on the back leg, and a dozen running down his spine. In the center of his head, like Shibaru, there was a tribal design of what looked like a star. One the left side of his head just beside the left ear was a long red horn that curled back like a goat's horn.

Naruto gave the guard a sharp glance. "What did you do?" The guard started to panic. Naruto reached into his pocket and produced a small thin blade. "Tell me, or I start cutting off digits."

"We didn't know they were yours and we were going to use them for fur co…" Naruto jammed the thin blade into his jugular and killed him. He dropped dead on the spot, leaving the teen shaking his head.

"How could they not know you two belonged to us?" He asked. They just looked at him. Well Rai started to wag his tail a bit. Naruto took that as a good sign. "Oh well. No point crying over spilt milk I guess. We should call one of the guards to have them take the body away." Naruto poked his head and called for some help. A while later, two guards appeared and took the body away while another came to clean up the mess.

As the guards left and shut the door, Naruto was left scratching at the side of his head. _"Good girl," _Zentrai said. Shibaru licked him clean of the blood and then shook the rest of it off, showering the place in blood. Naruto shot the creature a hard glare before running his head over his face to clean the blood from his eyes. Zentrai laughed mentally, allowing all three to catch it. _"Good girl!" _

"I hate you." Naruto walked out to find a bathroom to clean up.

(-)

When the ship entered the dock, the first thing that everyone was greeted by were terrified guards leading the Assassin Brother's off the ship with their two pets in tow. The two were dressed in their assassins clothing, both opting to wear them since this was technically a mission, and it was always best to show up ready. But for them it came with a price. Some of the soldiers looked ready for a fight, and most of those present were the Imperial Firebenders, Firebenders that were exceptionally strong and well advanced in the ways of Firebending.

But since they were here to take a mission from the Fire Lord no one dared to attack them. But Naruto and the two pets could easily hear what they were saying about them. "It's the Demon Brothers," one of them whispered.

"What are the Twin Devils doing here?"

"It's the Bloody Inferno and Silent Death."

Their names went on and on. The two had quite a reputation, one that didn't actually make sense. They never truly had a team name, but they did at the same time. It was given to them by a group of Water Tribe members that they had once done business for and that name seemed to just stick. They were known as the Assassin Brothers, but they weren't brothers. In fact it was easy to tell they weren't related by any means. Naruto's hair was blond and his eyes were blue. Zentrai's eyes were chocolate brown and his hair was dark brown that was long enough to cover his eyes.

And as for their personal nicknames, Naruto didn't care for them at all. He was used to earning such things. His time spent as a ninja of Konoha before ending up here was one blessing out of many that he had from back then. After spending years being called a Demon and a Monster, he just grew use to it all and accepted it. He understood you couldn't fully change the minds of those around you, but it was still annoying to have to hear someone of them.

"_Bloody Inferno," _Zentrai said. Naruto snorted at the name._ "Last time I checked that power doesn't burn anyone. But there is no denying the Bloody part in the name." _

Naruto ignored his friend's comment but still found it hard not to laugh. Zentrai did have a point. The power that earned him that nickname was very strange to everyone. Usually when they did business with a client they often asked or beat around the bush at least on the question of that power. Naruto's answer had always been the same. "I'm a ninja," he would say. That usually got the point across. No one dared to question him on it and no dared to ask where he came from. What few ninjas there were in the world often chose to keep to themselves and away from others. If there was ever a one that got paired up with someone for combat it was generally someone they knew from childhood or was someone they cared for deeply.

The two walked behind two of the Imperial Firebenders that were leading them to the Fire Lord. Like most of the Firebenders, they wore the traditional Firebending uniform and armor that covered everything from view. But as they followed them, Naruto had a nagging sensation that he knew at least one of them and suddenly stopped. Almost as if the guard could predict the future he turned around and stared at him.

"Do I know you?" Naruto asked. The guard shook his head slowly. His hesitation wasn't one of fear. Naruto's eyes narrowed on him. "If you're going to try and kill me, do it now while you have the chance." The man remained standing and turned to his buddy for a moment. "Did I kill your father?"

"My brother… actually." He spoke heatedly. Naruto snorted. "He was a good man and you killed him. Why?"

"Why are you fighting in this war?" The man looked disgruntled if his body language were to answer anything for him. Naruto shoved past him and the lone Firebender lead them the rest of the way.

"_That was a bit harsh." _Naruto snorted when Zentrai's voice entered into his mind. _"You don't like what we do, yet you do it anyways. Why is that?" _Naruto remained silent, his mind blank. Zentrai took it as the silent treatment and shook his head suddenly. It looked strange to anyone watching them at the moment. There was a difference between shaking your head to clear your thoughts and one of confusion during a conversation. And his was definitely from confusion during a conversation. _"I suppose I'll never fully understand you." _He confessed.

The blond had nothing to say. Zentrai once more shook his head as they followed the Firebender through a set of chambers. On the wall, paintings of the previous Fire Lords decorated the walls, their forms towering over them like a God looking down on ants with the power to kill or save them. The Firebender they followed didn't give moment to pause as they passed the last one, a picture of the current Fire Lord, Fire Lord Ozai.

Naruto glanced at it and began trying to remember the bounty on this man's head. Ozai was very young looking, dressed in formal robes, and had slick back black hair with a long pointy beard that hung from his chin. The painter had clearly gotten a good image of the man. With the way he was drawn, he looked like a gift from heavens, their savor, and the nicest person in the world. But there was no hiding what he truly was.

Ozai was a monster following the path of his forefathers before him. He burned and banished his firstborn son, Prince Zuko. He continued the campaign to take over all the other nations to _share _their greatness with the world. He wasn't supposed to take up the throne, but he did. His wife had vanished shortly before the death of the previous Fire Lord. Naruto debated with Zentrai once that Ozai had killed her, but Zentrai took up for Ozai stating that he was a monster, but doing that would have been difficult for him to hide from the world and possibly just left and went into hiding. But Ozai's list of dirty deeds never seemed to end actually.

The Firebender suddenly stopped before two more Imperial Firebenders that gave them quick glances. A large golden door with red trim to it stood before them and the two guards turned and slowly opened the doors to allow them entrance.

They entered and were graced with the sight of red and yellow flames that increased and decreased in size depending on how Ozai breathed. There were more Firebenders that gave them hash glares. Like the others, these were Imperial Firebenders and meant to guard the Fire Lord with their lives if anyone ever attacked him. The Fire Lord was right to have such people here. The bounty on his head was twice that which they were about to get paid. But there was an interesting catch to his bounty that would, under normal circumstances make anyone else mad. Zuko and Azula both had bounties on their head which were four times as much as his own.

The three Firebenders that had followed them in quickly bowed. Ozai smiled briskly for a moment, bathing in the glory and power that he had. But his smile turned into a frown when Naruto and Zentrai remained standing. "You should bow to our Fire Lord," one of the guards spoke heatedly.

"No. I bow to no one. Client or otherwise," Naruto said simply. The Fire Lord, for strange reasons, looked pleased just to hear that. With a wave of his hand the Firebenders left him. They knew that he could easily handle these two if they dared to attack him. When the guards left, Naruto took a deep breath and began the usual question and answering bit. "Do you have a picture of our target?"

"Yes," Ozai snapped his fingers and unseen servant appeared holding a scroll. He presented it to Naruto and the blond snatched it up. He quickly skimmed over it and stared at the _kid_ that was on the scroll. He had to be twelve, maybe younger, with a bald head that bore an arrow tattoo, a staff in hand, and simple shirt and pants to match. He looked ordinary and weak to Naruto. Ozai suddenly inhaled and the flames increased in size for a brief moment. "I trust you can complete this without a problem?"

"Of course." Naruto rolled up the scroll and put it into his pack on his back. "But I do have a question for you." Ozai didn't look pleased by this, but allowed it. "Where was the last spot our target was seen at?"

Ozai closed his eyes in thought before answering. "He was last seen at the Northern Water Tribe. But I doubt he'll be there for much longer." Naruto's eyes narrowed for a moment. "He's the leader of a rebel faction that posses a great threat to our glories nation. His rebel faction has already taken back a few villages and our soldiers are spread too thin at the moment. I'm aware that you've done business with other nations, and I assure you, if you can complete this, I will personally see to it that you are well taken care of for the rest of your lives. However, you are to kill the target and bring his body back to us if you can't take him alive."

"Do you have a preference for the status of the target?"

"Alive will get you more money," Ozai answered quickly and sharply. "But if you cannot, dead will be fine." Naruto nodded and gave his comrade a quick glance. "I do have a request for you though. I wish for you to work with my daughter, Azula. You will have free reign to do as you please during your hunt for the target. Azula is currently hunting down my brother and her brother, Zuko and Iroh. My sources tell me that they were last seen on an island not too far from here. It's a resort of sorts that belongs to us, but is still not part of the Fire Nation directly. You can find them there."

"Am I to assume you don't have transportation for us?"

"I will have one of my ships leave as soon as you are ready. They should get you to your destination in a less than two days."

_Two days on a boat with Zentrai and Shibaru are enough to get me angry with him. _"Can I make a request?" Ozai nodded. "I would appreciate if you could get a crew of only men. There is to be no alcohol of any kind as well. Can you make this happen?"

"_I hate you!" _Zentrai snapped mentally.

"I will see to it," Ozai replied briskly. He made sure to give the two a strange glance as a result. Naruto didn't mind the glance. In fact it looked sort of funny on him. Zentrai was left scowling as a result. "Is there anything else you wish to have on the ship?"

Naruto looked down at Rai and then to Shibaru. "Lots of a meat if you don't want the crew to be eaten." Ozai nodded again and with the dealing done, Naruto and Zentrai, their two pets included, turned and walked out. When the guards returned and shut the door, Naruto was left snickering. _"That's for letting Shibaru cover me with blood." _Zentrai continued to scowl at him.

(-)

The ship wouldn't be ready for until tomorrow, so with that in mind, Naruto decided to spend the day looking at weapons and just shopping. It wasn't like he got the opportunity to shop in the Fire Nation every day, so he simply made the most of it. Zentrai had decided to find the nearest brothel and bang every chick in it. Naruto knew him well enough to know that he'd get the job done. His record at pleasing multiple women at a time was outstanding by his records, but Naruto believed that if you needed more than one woman to make you happy, you were clearly an idiot.

Still, Zentrai wasn't about to spend the entire time having sex. He had other things on his mind besides sex, and it still included a brothel. Naruto knew what he was doing, but it still annoyed him to know how his comrade thought.

_I suppose it can't be helped, _Naruto thought to himself. He walked into the shade of a tent over a produce stand and stared at the object the vendor was selling. Jewelry, small weapons, and fancy silk threads lined his stand. The blond reached out and grabbed one of the tiny weapons. It was a tiny dagger that was primarily given to women for self-defense. Naruto put it back and went back to his task of killing time.

Rai suddenly started whining and Naruto smirked. "Are you hungry boy?" Rai opened his mouth as if to yawn. That was his way of saying yes. Naruto ruffled his head, making sure to miss the horn and ears. He was very sensitive about anyone touching his ears or horn. Naruto was the only one to do this however. Rai just liked him that way. It was sort of like a scratch behind the ears for him. He enjoyed it when it came from his master and killed anyone else that dared try to do it.

Looking around, Naruto soon found a small restaurant that was open and allowed pets. Walking into the restaurant he was greeted by two big men that stared down at his pet. "We don't like strangers bringing in pets. So get out." The tallest one barked.

Naruto eyed him for a moment and then snorted. "You do realize that that doesn't make sense, right?" The two men inhaled deeply, puffing out their chests to look more opposing. Naruto rolled his eyes as a result. "The only reason you don't like me is because I've either killed someone important to you or a friend of a friend that you know. And if that's the case, why would you wanna start a fight with me? That doesn't make sense. And I've got the protection of the Fire Lord right now for a mission I've taken up. So why are you picking a fight with me?"

The two men looked confused for a moment. One of looked like they were going to answer when they suddenly stopped and just tried to hit him. Naruto calmly moved to the side and let the man stumbled out of the way. He turned to fight him when Rai took a bite out of his ass. A really big bite actually. He fell to the ground with both ass cheeks missing and blood pooling on the floor. He screamed loud and long as Rai gobbled down the chunk of flesh in his mouth.

"Are you gonna let me in now, or do I let Rai finish eating your friend?" Naruto asked calmly. His buddy move out of his way and Naruto whistled for Rai to follow. He followed, but walked over the man's back, his long claws extended for maximum bitch effect. He trotted up behind his master and sat next to his master when he selected a table. Everyone in the restaurant kept their gaze on Naruto as he ordered for himself and Rai. When the food came, Rai savagely ate up his food while Naruto poked at his. He soon realized that he wasn't hungry and let Rai eat it.

Paying his tab, he left the restaurant for some fresh air.

(-)

Zentrai turned and waved to the girls with a big smile. Being a mute had its advantages, and one of them was always winning girls over with his inability to talk. They felt sorry for him and so they often did what he asked, even if they didn't understand why they wanted to do it.

Zentrai's way of talking wasn't just a way of interacting with people; it was his way of also sharing emotions. People can say things like "I'm sorry," or "I love you," and simply say it without meaning it. But with the way he talked, not only did his words echo into their minds, his emotions did as well.

It was a little hard to explain, but it was easy for him to understand. It would be like a person that was color blind trying to have someone explain what the color red was, or what something smelled like to someone that didn't have a sense of smell. One can't simply describe it to another, they had to experience it themselves to understand it. And that was how he was generally able to get into anyone's pants. If he said he loved you, his emotions went with it, and they too sort of fell for him as well.

There was that and the fact that he had Shibaru along for the ride. His pet was also a way of getting into someone's pants. No matter how scary Shibaru was, she absolute loved attention, and could easily get girls for his master to have fun with. The strange beast could win over all girls with her cuteness, which Naruto swore wasn't there, just like most guys did when they saw her. But one could saw the same for Rai as well. Guys saw him and freaked. Girls saw him and wanted to ride on his back.

As he left, he was left with the thoughts of what Shibaru was going through. Being a telepath had many advantages, and one of them was reading what was on the minds of everyone. He could easily block them and his own thoughts as well. Anything he used to think up was instantly transmitted, but not any longer. Now he could think without transmitting what he was thinking, and block the thoughts of those around him if he wanted to.

Rai and Shibaru were actually spirits that had given up their immortality to die here in this land. They wanted to move on, and had allowed other spirits to take their place. They had lived for eons now and merely wanted to move on after forging a life of their own. Shibaru and Rai weren't their real names however. They had had many names, but Shibaru and Rai were the newest ones, and thus were called that. They had infested two dying animals, both of which came from the desert, and changed them to their liking. There would be no other breed like them.

Naruto and Zentrai had come across them during a mission back when they still had their third teammate with them. The two spirits had infested the bodies before their eyes as the two creatures' neared death. After consuming the bodies and changing them to their liking, they were quickly aware that the bodies that inhabited needed food and drink. Naruto, ever stupid at that point in time, had ran up to them with a big goofy smile and presented his water pouch to them. Rai was hesitant but soon drank from it while Shibaru was left questioning his actions.

After drinking his fill, Naruto had presented Rai with some jerky and instantly won his heart over. And with Rai in tow as his pet, Shibaru was left wondering about Zentrai. Zentrai, after realizing that she was a girl, had quickly done the same and won her over. And after a quick trip back to town, the two pets became lifelong friends with them after being fed lots of meat and drink. And now they were their partners in crime so to say. If one of them got angry, generally the master got angry as well and beat that person down.

"_Are you hungry, girl?" _

"_Food!" _Shibaru's mind screamed. Laughing, he motioned for her to follow as they made their way through the small market. There was a big guy mourning at the door of a restaurant that was cleaning up a mass of blood on the ground. Shibaru took a single sniff and declared, _"Rai's been here," _as she trotted pass the man. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw her and watched the two take the same seats Naruto and Rai had.

A terrified waitress came to serve them. Zentrai pointed to what he wanted and made it simple for the young woman. He didn't want to have sex right now. He was drained from having sex with ten girls as it was, and simply used hand motions to tell the beautiful waitress what they wanted. She jotted it down and walked off, returning only ten minutes later with a tray of food for the two.

As was the custom, Shibaru ate all the meat while Zentrai nibbled on the side dishes. It was always best to not eat the food that was cooked without being able to watch it. And since Shibaru and Rai were fully healed spirits, the idea of someone making a poison strong enough to kill them was highly unlikely. After paying the tab and leaving to shop, Zentrai eyed the still crying man with remorse. He put a calming on his shoulder and flooded his mind with that feeling. The man tensed and then relaxed.

"_All is right with the world," _Zentrai sent him calmness again and the man smiled before narrowing his eyes. He backed up and ran to the back while Shibaru took a few sniffs of the blood that had seeped into the wood. _"Let's go find Naruto and Rai. I'm sure they've already found a place to stay for the night." _

(-)

By the time it was time to leave, Naruto had done exactly what he planned on doing: Spying on the Fire Nation. Just because he was doing a mission for them didn't mean he was working for them for the rest of his life. This was an enemy nation that had started a war and was about to win it. While it was a hard thing to resist killing the Fire Lord, Naruto knew that Azula, who was currently in line to receive the throne, would be far worse than he was. She would sooner set the world on fire just to watch it burn while Ozai just wanted to control it all.

Zentrai had completed what he had wanted to do as well: Bang a Firebender. He had sex with at least two of them that were known Firebenders and even admitted to it. The only sad thing was that one of them didn't shave, she just burned her hair off and was done with it, but she had horrid burns down there which made it hard for him to enjoy. The other thing he set out to do was easily put into place as well. And with his duty to the world complete, he had trucked off to find Naruto and get ready for the ride.

After two days of sailing they eventually found who they were looking for. Azula, Princesses of the Fire Nation, a prodigy Firebender, and a total bitch now stood before them. Her Imperial Firebenders looked ready to attack. That was a good sign to both assassins. If they enemy was ready to attack you, they were the type to not have fear. Azula for the most part took pleasure behind her personal throne of curtains with Li and Lo by her side.

"So," she spoke quickly, properly, and with a pride in her voice. "My father has sent you two to help me in capturing my brother and uncle, has he?" Naruto opened his mouth to speak. "Do not speak to me until I tell you to speak!"

"We're here only to capture or eliminate our target. The fact that we're on your ship is only because your father has sent too many of his ships out to sea and cannot afford to waste any more of his precious resources." Naruto said sternly. He could see her eyes boring through the cloth of her curtains with ease. If he had to guess, they'd burst into flames any moment now with the way she was glaring at him. "And for the record, I'm not taking orders from a spoiled little bitch like you."

Two Imperial Firebenders rose up to challenge them. "Did I order you to stand?" She snapped suddenly. The two men quickly took their spots up again and knelt before her. "I see you know about the scroll my father sent me." A grin played on her lips. "I am under orders of my father to not get in your way, but you are to work with me. You have been ordered to track down a target that is considered a secondary target to me at the moment. I am to let you do all the work from what father said in his letter. When it comes to combat, we are to work as one and all tactics go to me. But I am to understand that I am to not get in your way. Is this right?"

"Our target is ours, not yours. If you try to take it, you will be getting in our way. We are to do this our way, not yours. You have only the power to choose how we get to our targets, nothing more and nothing less." Naruto looked at the twenty Imperial Firebenders that all knelt before her. _"I wonder how many of them have lost precious people to us."_

"_More than you'd like to know right now," _Zentrai replied.

Naruto kept his gaze with Azula as she started twirling one of her long bangs in her fingers. She almost seemed pleased to hear him standing up to her. But Naruto knew it was a façade. She didn't like him, and Naruto knew that she knew he didn't like her either. They were on even ground with that. Both would leave each other alone so long as neither of them go in their way or asked too many questions.

"I trust your _guards _will behave enough to not try and kill us in our sleep?" None of the guards moved or flinched at the way Naruto spoke of them. Azula actually smirked at the way he spoke of them. He made them seem like idiots that were unworthy of their titles. Some of them were veterans that had fought in the war and come back as heroes before their skills became high enough to become what they were. For Naruto to even make a mockery of them was a bad thing.

"You have my word that they will do you no harm." Her grin increased. "Before you are seen to your quarters, I request a demonstration of your skills so I know what I'm working with. It will make both our jobs easier."

"Ladies first," Naruto snapped quickly. He didn't like the idea of showing off his powers.

Azula didn't mind. "I can shoot blue fire and I'm near master level. I can even shoot lightning." Naruto wasn't impressed. She wasn't the first Firebender to use lightning, but she flaunted it as though she was. "Now why don't you both be good little peasants and tell me what you can do." Her eyes danced to Zentrai. "I wish to see you first."

"My friend is a mute that's both deaf and dumb. I use him as a distraction when I need to escape." Naruto cracked.

"_I hate you." _Zentrai snapped.

"But he does work for you. I wish to see what both of you can do. Telling me will get me nowhere." She raised one hand and the twenty Firebenders rose. "Please demonstrate your powers for me, or be burned alive."

The blond snorted inwardly. _"For the record," _Naruto said mentally. _"I hate you and blame you for this." _Zentrai just laughed as the two were forced to slip into their fighting stance. Naruto somehow knew that it would all play out like this. Azula was a cold and heartless bitch, but she was a tactician and she was going to be working with them. So knowing what they could do would help her in planning her moves. _"At least we're going to have some fun out of this." _

The twenty Firebenders moved in and quickly swarmed them. Naruto was instantly on the offensive, countering them with high speeds that left a few stunned and even more of them angry. Zentrai simply jumped to the side, over the boat, and then back up onto the deck.

Azula watched them fight with both glee and distain for her own guards. So far no one had been killed or hurt, but it was clear that the two assassins were more skilled than even her guards. Naruto had gotten in close to dozens of them and simply ducked and sidestepped their fire, even going as far as to have them hurt each other or themselves with their own attacks. Zentrai just simply dodged them without much effort. He actually seemed to enjoy mocking them really with the way he hung back, his hands in his pockets and his eyes narrowed slightly on those trying to attack him.

Realizing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with this, she hastily ordered them to fight to kill.

That changed things up a lot. Where one or two Firebenders would attack them in different sets, they now all openly attacked them, showing that they had either all lost someone they loved or knew to them, or knew someone that lost someone to them. And that was when things turned for the two.

"_Start killing them," _Naruto ordered. Before the first Firebender could attack him again, Naruto was in front of him, his speed near deafening to the men. He dropped dead before a second one fell before the feet of the blond with thumb sized holes in their jugulars or at the base of their skulls. With two already dead at the feet of the blond and eight remaining, Naruto carefully considered his options at the moment.

The eight Imperial Firebenders quickly attacked as one. The roar of their flames was unmatched by the screams and pleas of those that Zentrai was crippling and leaving to be eaten by Shibaru and Rai. Naruto calmly sidestepped their combined attack, opened his hand, allowing three stiletto knives into his hands from his gauntlet, and threw them. Each blade pierced helmet at the eye hole and dropped the men as they screamed in pain. One of them fell face first and was killed when the knife skewered his brain. The other two tried to tear the knife out without removing their eye. Both failed and both soon had a torrent of blood draining down their masks.

With three dead and two wounded, Naruto was already starting to wonder if Azula was going to call this off. He gave her a quick glance to sum her up. _No, _he thought to himself, _she won't call this off. _With the remaining seven charging him, Naruto took a calming breath and brought his hands to the small of his back at his belt. He reached into his belt and pulled out two wickedly looking knives. They seven Firebenders did another combined attack. Two of them shot flames down low against the metal hull of the deck. Three shot out flames that would have been waist high while the remaining four burned the air over his head in case he tried jumping.

With a calming breath, he threw the two knives at the two that had tried to attack low. The projectiles were embedded into their feet, pinning them in place. As the blades left his hands, he ducked and rolled back, evading the wall of fire. It passed overhead as he rose to his feet, his eyes burning brightly. The two on the ground pulled the knives out and shot two fireballs at him. The blond sidestepped their attacks, twisted, and threw two more knives from his hand. They were quickly embedded into their throats, leaving them on the ground dead like their fallen comrades thus far.

The five remaining men stopped their attack and surveyed the teen. Naruto knew they were thinking now. They wouldn't openly attack with reckless abandonment now. They'd think smart or smarter actually, and try to pin him down instead of just hoping to burn him down.

Grinning his old prankster grin, the teen took a deep breath and calmly pointed at them. "I think I've killed enough of you idiots. How about I end this with two moves?" They didn't hesitate to look at the fallen thus far. Seeing this, the blond decided to hold true to his words and formed a very familiar seal. "Shadow Clone no Jutsu," he whispered. Five bangs and five identical teens stood before them. The men looked ready to attack. "Move one and now move two." Naruto, and his clones, brought their hands together into a different seal. "Sexy no Jutsu," he declared with a smile. There were six puffs of smoke and the six very beautiful, very well endowed, women standing before the five lone fighters. They didn't stand a chance.

Spreading their legs, blowing kisses, and grabbing their breasts, it was no wonder they passed out after a dinging noise sounded from them. All but one of them did actually.

"You've gotta be kidding me?" The lone fighting said in shock as he looked at his companions. He turned back just in time to see Naruto, the girls gone and the clones missing, as he shoved his fist into his face, knocking him unconscious.

With a snort, Naruto said, "Queer," as he turned to watch his friend fight while Azula gawked at his less than ideal way of ending the fight.

Azula's eyes hastily snapped over to Zentrai as he continued playing with all nine of his remaining opponents. Rai and Shibaru were currently hounding away on the poor soul that had been crippled and were eating him alive on the spot.

Zentrai was smiling at his nine opponents. They were using their heads and they weren't openly trying to incinerate him on the spot. Naruto figured that was always his luck. He got stuck dealing with the brutes while Zentrai got the smart ones that wanted to play it safe.

One of them moved for a Firebending strike. Zentrai was one him, his hand lashing out and grabbing his wrist to move the attack out of his way. Fire spewed into the air and the other eight took a step back. Zentrai held onto the man's wrist as he presented his back to him and kicked him three times in the stomach before elbowing him in the face. A hidden blade extended and went into his brain through his eye. There was no cry of pain. He just dropped to the ground dead.

The other eight got ready to strike when Zentrai raised a hand and slapped it closed. They took a step back and two of them dropped with the blades from the fallen fighters Naruto dealt with in their spines. They were crippled now if not dead.

Four down in under a minute and the remaining six began to consider the option of not fighting him now. Azula would kill them if they disobeyed her orders.

Without further thought they attacked as one. _"Boring," _Zentrai said silently to Naruto. He watched the wall of fire head straight towards. He ducked back, dodging it with ease and rose throwing senbon into their throats and eyes. They all dropped and Zentrai was left feeling dejected because of it all. _"Next time I want your opponents. I like being a counter whore!" _He whined. Naruto mentally laughed at his friends' demise because of this.

Realizing that they had won and did so with very little display of their abilities, they turned to Azula and waited for her to throw something new at them. She sat patiently behind her curtains and stared at them intently. Naruto wondered if she was trying to set them on fire with her gaze alone. She nodded and snapped her fingers. Ten more Imperial Firebenders appeared to haul of the dead while two hung back to guard her.

"You're skills are beyond what I believed to be true. You do live up to your name as the Twin Slayers." Naruto rolled his eyes and chalked that name up as their eightieth strange name. "These two men will see you to your quarters. I will explain what we'll be doing when you're ready."

Naruto looked to Zentrai for a moment and then looked to Azula. "It doesn't matter if we're ready or not. Explain what you have planned now so we can be better prepared for it."

"Very well." She rose from her throne and stepped out into the orange light of the setting sun. She was the spitting image of her wanted posters and bounty posters all over the Earth Kingdom. She wore high ranking armor, marking her as a member of the Royal Family and robes underneath it. She was dressed like a warrior, and probably fought just as tough as the best of them. Her hair was neatly pulled back into a small bun to keep all but her two side bangs out of her face. If the devil were a human in disguise, she would be the first suspect in everyone's eyes.

"The Royal Procession is dead weight. If I wish to catch my prey, I must be agile, nimble. I'm going to need a small elite team to help me out. The first thing we're going to do is find some old friends." She waited to see what they'd have to say. Naruto had nothing to say and with the other guy being a mute, she knew he'd have nothing to say. "I intend to visit my old friends, Mai and Ty Lee. They are childhood friends and will make my elite team. Each a skill that I value highly."

"If painting your nails and combing your hair is one of their skills, I won't recommend this." Naruto suddenly snapped. _"Anymore women and you'd get ideas." _Naruto thought up front so Zentrai could pick it up. The mute smiled for a brief moment.

"I assure you, their skills are not like that. Ty Lee is a very agile and can block Chi points in the human body, keeping anyone from bending or using their limbs. She is by far the strongest fighter that I know of that can't Firebend. And as for Mai, she's far more skilled with projectiles than either of you." A thin blade barely missed the side of her cheek. It grazed her cheek but left no wound. Zentrai was the only one to have moved and he didn't look pleased by that comment. "You dare attack me?!"

"Zentrai doesn't like anyone thinking their better than him when it comes to throwing weapons." Naruto spoke firmly for his friend. "Just because he's a mute doesn't make him a complete idiot. He's very skilled when it comes to long range weaponry. I haven't met anyone that can actually outdo him in his choice of class yet." _Not like anyone can anyways with his style of bending. It makes it impossible for anyone to be better than him so long as metal is involved. _

"See to it that he doesn't do it again!" She snapped. She hurriedly turned and stormed into the ship, leaving her throne behind. The two assassins glanced at one another before sighing and shrugging their shoulders. Women were very hard to understand no matter if they were human or otherwise.

"_More women…" _Zentrai thought happily.

"_I hope they put you in your place and not have sex with you." _Naruto walked off; leaving his friend with his pet while Rai hurriedly joined the teen.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

Chapter 3

Azula didn't like either of them. Naruto and Zentrai were dangerous. Li and Lo confirmed that they were dangerous and deceitful. They were not to be trusted with anything, even her protection. But while their goals were the same she would endure this. She would endure both of them for as long as she had to.

She chewed on her lower lip for a brief moment as she tried to think of a way to use them other than what her father had ordered. The orders were very specific. She couldn't use them at all except when it came to how they moved around. They had say in their combat, choosing when to fight and how to fight. She could understand that part, but the other things she couldn't. Why wasn't she being allowed to use them to her whim? Why wasn't she being allowed to choose when and how they fought? Did her father believe she couldn't control them? Or was it something more?

As she mulled it over, she suddenly decided to have a word with them. Finding them wasn't hard. This was her ship and she knew where everyone slept. It wasn't hard to find them either. There was a trail of blood and gore from two fools that had already tried to attack them. They weren't dead… yet. But they were bleeding like mad and were trying to get away. As the two guards passed her up, she wondered if she should just go ahead and kill them for disobeying her orders.

_A slow death for those that disobey, _she finally thought. She walked up to their door and flung it open. The sight was not a pleasant one. Naruto was shirtless while Zentrai had Shibaru on top of him, her form covering most of him from view. Naruto wasn't pleased and quickly reached for a thin blade to fling at her. "I only came here to talk. No need to be hostile," she cooed. Naruto didn't look convinced. "I thought we'd share war stories and precious memories together." She half lied.

Naruto lowered his weapon and then sat it down. "What's on your mind?" Naruto grabbed a new shirt and quickly slipped it on. It wasn't his battle clothing he wore anymore. He'd switched to baggy pants with metal shin guards and ankle bracings that clamped down the end of his pants. He wore a plan white sleeveless shirt that he left hanging out. With his hair down, he looked rather strange, not like the assassin that he was.

She crossed her arms and then took a thoughtful glance. "The Fire Nation has a spy system in place, which I'm sure you're aware of." She began. Zentrai poked his head out from under the mass of fur that was Shibaru and gave her a blinking glance. "I do like to spend time reading up on all things interesting when it comes to the war. For instance did you know that we have information on the two of you?"

"I would imagine so." Naruto answered cryptically.

She pursued her lips together and continued. "You appeared roughly two years ago on the day of General Wang's death. He was assassinated by a three people, two that wore white and another that wore green robes very similar to your own. General Wang was about to lead a campaign into the Earth Kingdom territories to take his shot at the great wall of Ba Sing Se. He was also newly appointed at that time. His promotion was something that was heard all around the Fire Nation because he was a prodigy tactician. We know that you two lead that attack and killed him. You're fighting style, while you didn't show much of it during your demonstration, proved that you are the one that killed him."

Naruto leaned back, his left hand going into his pouch that now lay on the bed. Azula looked ready for a fight. Naruto pulled out a book and flipped it to a certain page. "You're correct. I did kill him. General Sung of the Earth Kingdom and one of the Council of Five paid us to do that. But you're wrong. I've been here for four years but only spent two and half years working as a mercenary. It was one of the first major missions we took up. General Sung, when we returned, told us that he doubted we'd get away after the assassination and said that he hadn't expected us to even get it done. The fact that we pulled it off gave us the start for our reputation." He answered without taking his eyes off the book.

Azula nodded. It was quite a feat actually. They had penetrated one of their major strongholds without alerting anyone. The only death had been the General Wang. "Yes. That was the start of your little reputation as mercenaries wasn't it?" Naruto turned a page on his book as a result. Azula brushed a bang from her eyes and continued. "Two months after that you took out two elite squad Captions. A week after that, you took out one Navy Caption. Four months after that, you took out three retired Generals for reasons we don't fully know."

"The three retired Generals were killed by us, but our reasons were because of their actions during their time as Admirals and beforehand. Ten women were raped by them personally, and one of them had rape a twelve year old. I stand against such things and thus took them out as a way of soothing their souls since the twelve year old died as a result. You can call your nation a great one, but when you stoop to such levels your nothing but monsters and thugs. You're not worse than some of the Earth Nation villages that are suffering at the hands of their own troops when you do things like that."

Azula didn't bat an eye to this. She knew about it and didn't care about it. "After that assassination you vanished and then resurfaced little over two months ago, shortly after the death of Lyra. She was an Earthbender prodigy that was beating our troops. You took the mission for the Fire Nation under Commander Zhao." She stopped and looked at the two. They didn't look impressed with her smoothing talking now. "After this you took on a mission that once more had you killing one of our Admirals. And now here you are."

Naruto slapped his book shut and gently turned his attention to the cover. _Legend of the Gutsy Ninja by Jiraiya of the Sannin, _he read mentally. He looked up at Azula as she waited for a reply. "You're right again. I suppose I'll have to start moving carefully again since I seemed to do a pretty impressive job evading your spy network, Azula. However," he paused as she put both arms on her hips, "you're way of thinking is off. We don't work like how you think."

"And what makes you think that I know how you think?"

Naruto smirked slightly. "You believe we vanished from the world. Truth is we were hiding right under your noses. Did you know the best place to hide is actually right in front of the enemy half of the time?" Her lips curved into a sly smile. Naruto flipped his book open again and started reading once more. "With the Fire Nation controlling little more than sixty percent of the earth, it's easy for anyone to hide in plain sight. But the problem is that those who hide with a very large bounty on their heads are seen as heroes for whatever they may have done to get that bounty. Take for instance me. I've killed dozens of high ranking Fire Nation soldiers, and I'm fairly certain that my bounty is very high." She nodded. Naruto continued. "The problem with this is that I've become a legend, just like Zentrai has. And people like me become heroes for our actions. I bet that if I went to any general in the Earth Kingdom, I could get money, soldiers, and even women to follow me wherever I go just because of my past actions. Do you follow me?"

"You believe that people will follow you just because of what you've done?" Naruto nodded with a smile, his eyes never leaving the book. Azula rubbed her chin slightly. "So with all the high bounties on everyone's head, like Joeng Jeong, people will offer them asylum rather than turn them over. Interesting," she said quietly.

"I suppose in the end it all comes down to whose greedy and whose not." Naruto turned the page on his book. Azula realized that he was going to be ignoring her now and decided to leave. She made sure to have one of the guards slam the door shut for her. Turning a page on his book as the door was shut, Naruto shook his head. _"She hates us," _he thought for his friend to read.

"_She hates everyone but her father," _Zentrai sent back. He kept his gaze locked with the large form of Shibaru. _"Should I start reading her surface thoughts or…"_

"_No. Leave her for now. She's nothing to us for the time being. The only thing we need to worry about, are her two friends." _Naruto yawned. _"I'm going to take a nap. Wake me in an hour or if we make port. I wanna meet these friends of hers for myself." _Naruto sat his book down on the nightstand and crawled onto his futon. He didn't both with taking his clothing off. It was best he be prepared for anything since they were on an enemy ship.

**Four Years Ago**

"_Fitting that we should face oblivion together." _A dark voice cooed.

Naruto was brought awake by a cold and wet clothe touching his forehead. It dripped down the side of his face and he was slowly able to make out the shapes around him. His eyes blinked in the bright light from the opened door. It looked more like a tent actually after he stared at it for a brief moment. As his eyes moved from the tent exit to the things around him, he was soon drawn to the object that had woken him from his slumber.

It was a woman wearing green robes with golden trim. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and her sleeves were rolled up. She was currently speaking to him but he couldn't hear her. He motioned to his ears and then tried to sit up as his eyes continued to adjust to the bright light. She somehow got the message that he couldn't hear her and moved to the side. Naruto watched her and carefully looked down at the sheets that covered him.

She tapped his shoulder and his gaze soon turned to hers. She was holding a piece of paper with an ink brush. _I haven't seen one of those since last time I saw Sai fighting, _he noted. She started drawing on it and showed it to him. Naruto blinked at her less than ideal drawing. _Not everyone's an artist, _he mused while looking at the drawing of rocks, a hunched over stick person, and a stick body on the ground. "So someone found me outside?" She looked around for a moment and then to him. She motioned to her mouth and then to her ears and then did the only gesture that truly transcended all languages: she raised her arms and then slapped them to her side. "Huh?"

She motioned to her mouth and then to his. Naruto did the same thing she did and then figured it out.

She nodded with a smile and then went back to her crappy drawings. She offered one up showing food, which had him nodding. She ran off after a moment and then returned roughly eight minutes later with a plate of meat and vegetables. Naruto turned his nose up at the vegetables but happily ate the meat. He didn't know what it was, but it tasted like beef, but it was a chicken leg. He shrugged his shoulders and continued to eat.

Once he was done she drew another image, this one being an image of a thermometer and a human head with dorky eyes, mouth and nose to match. She pointed to Naruto and motioned to the crappy thermometer she had drawn. Naruto figured that one out easily. "I have a fever," he whispered as he felt his head for a moment. She seemed to understand that much and nodded. "How long have I been here?" She again shrugged, offering that she didn't understand him when she drew two stick figures, one talking and another that had question marks over its head.

The tent opened up and allowed an old man that was hunched over, wearing formal robes with a metal cap on his head that had two long strands of either hair or fur sticking out. He wore fancy rings on each of his fingers and snorted when he laughed. As he spoke, Naruto became aware that, after his ears began to work, he couldn't understand him at all. Naruto gave the girl a helpless look and she spoke for him, showing all the drawings she'd done so far.

The two held a quick conversation before the man gave him a snorting laugh, one that had Naruto wondering if the guy hated him or because he simply laughed this way. He looked utterly crazy.

The man moved up to him and gently put a hand on his forehead. He spoke, but Naruto didn't understand him. But the man soon turned and left, leaving him in the care of the young woman. Naruto gave her a strange glance and she smiled while pulling out another set of papers to draw on. "Women are strange," he mumbled before something grabbed his arm. Naruto turned to face it but nothing was there. He felt like he was being shaken at the moment.

**Present Day**

Naruto's eyes snapped open and the form of Zentrai snapped into view. _"We've made port," _he sent to him with his mind. Naruto nodded and slowly got to his feet. _"You were dreaming about your arrival again? Why? Does something still bother you about it?"_

"_No," _Naruto answered quickly. Naruto looked around and found that Zentrai was back in his normal clothing. He wore a large black jacket-like rob that was held together by a set of buttons and a single sash. Underneath that, though unseen, was a pair of black pants, a long sleeved rob shirt and a sleeveless rob shirt over the long sleeved shirt. Like Naruto, he wore shin guards over his pants with ankle bracers included.

Zentrai motioned to the door and the teen jumped out of his bed as a single guard entered. "Forgive me for the intrusion, but we've made it to port," he said softly. Naruto gave a small nod and he left after shutting the door.

"_They seem to be frightened of us," _Zentrai said mentally. He had a goofy grin on at the moment. _"Do you think they fear me because of reputation as a silent killer or because I'm a lady's man that has more than likely pleased their ladies?" _The blond shot his friend a hard glare that told him to shut up. The telepath clearly didn't catch it. _"I'm sure I've had sex with a few of their wives. He'll, I bet I banged Azula's mom somewhere down the road."_

"_Shut up. I don't wanna hear your sex stories. Let's just get up top so we can enjoy some fresh air and some time away from this boat. Any longer here and I might just get sick and keel over before we find our target." _Naruto stormed out of their quarters and up to the deck. Azula was waiting for them with two Imperial Firebenders at her side. Naruto shot them both a hostile glare when one of them turned and offered a snort as a greeting. "I assume you know where you're friend is?"

Azula inhaled through her nose, disregarding his question. "We are in a Fire Nation town and are about to go to a Circus that is setting up for tonight's performance. I trust you won't do anything hostile towards the others?" She was glaring at Zentrai. Naruto gave his comrade a quick glance and then sighed. "I assume you know he tried to sneak off with one of members of the crew on this ship. It was a female if you're curious."

Naruto messaged the bridge of his nose as he said, "Why can't you just pull your head out of your ass and use your head for once?" Naruto was glaring at his comrade now as well. Zentrai was smiling while offering up the silent message that was easily translated as: I didn't do anything. Naruto wasn't impressed. "If I see you stick your dick in anything female, even if it's a female tree, I'm going to hurt you… badly."

Azula smiled triumphantly at that, knowing that someone could at least keep him under control. And with the law laid down she began heading off the ship and into town. Naruto wasn't at all impressed with the town anyways. Sure it was a Fire Nation town, but it was one that had probably once belonged to the Earth Kingdom, even if it was just an island that had a single bridge to connect itself to the mainland.

The five passed various people along the way, all of which either bowed to Azula as she passed, and ran away in fear at the sight of the two assassins. It wasn't very encouraging to Azula to know that more people feared them even more than her. It was downright sickening in her eyes. She was one of the two people that had the power to actually snuff them out with but a wave of her hand or a simple plea to her father. And yet they choose to fear these two assassins more than her? It didn't make sense in her eyes.

But she would coupe with it for now. She had to at least look somewhat happy when meeting her friend. In fact it wasn't even hard to find her or mask her current emotions and put up a fake smile as she approached her friend.

Standing upside down on two fingers, wearing pink pants, a pink shirt, and her hair pulled back into a braided ponytail was her friend: Ty Lee.

Azula made sure her smile was in place as she got in her field of vision. "Ty Lee, could that possibly be you?" She had to make sure her voice was chipper and sounded happy to see her. That part was easy to mask because she actually was happy to see her.

For Ty Lee, she was overjoyed. "Azula," she cried while jumping to her feet, turning around, and bowing respectfully to her old friend. Azula smiled at her antics and waited for her to stand again. Ty Lee quickly got back to her feet and engulfed her friend in a hug. "It is so good to see you!" She said while releasing her hold on her. Azula smiled as the two assassins, Zentrai in particular, began eyeing her.

"Please, don't let me interrupt your… whatever it is that you were doing." Ty Lee quickly jumped back and began stretching… or showing off. She was definitely doing one of the two. Ty Lee decided to lay flat on the ground and then bend backwards so that her feet were in her face. Her head was propped up on her elbows and her smile never once faltered as Azula spoke to her.

Naruto and Zentrai decided to hold a mental conversation of their own while this took place. _"She really doesn't look like much." _Naruto thought. Zentrai hesitated in his reply, giving Naruto a chance to continue the conversation. _"Then again, when I first started training with Gen Fu he said I didn't look like much. So maybe she is useful."_

"_She can contort herself in a ball! I bet she fucks like a Mooselion!" _Naruto shot Zentrai a hostile glare. _"I wonder how tight she is. I bet she's as tight as that tree I banged while I was drunk a year ago! Do you remember that?"_

"_How could I forget? I woke up to you with your dick in a tree hole and banging it none stop until your dick was as red as your blood! Now can you please stay focused? What's on the girl's surface thoughts? Can you at least do that without talking to her?"_

Naruto snapped back to listening in on Azula and Ty Lee's conversation. "I have a proposition for you." Azula said briskly. Ty Lee started to frown a little. "I'm hunting a traitor. You remember my old funny duddy uncle, don't you?"

The acrobat grinned. "Oh yeah! He was so funny!"

Azula smiled. "I would be honored if you were to join me on my mission."

Ty Lee quickly started looking around as if to find the best possible escape route. She even stuttered with her words. "I… uh… would love to." Her smile never returned, not even as she jumped back to her feet and gave her friend a sad glance. "But the truth is… I'm really happy here." She waved her arms around as if to show the place to her. Naruto rolled his eyes and smiled, believing that this was his personal victor at the moment. "I mean… my aura has never been pinker!"

"_I wonder just how pink she is!" _Zentrai laughed mentally. Naruto started growling at him.

Azula caught whiff of it but ignored them. "I'll take your word for it. Well I wouldn't want you to give up the life you life just to please me!" Azula cooed happily.

_Lying bitch, _Naruto grumbled.

Ty Lee brought her hands together for a short bow as she inclined her head. "Thank you, Azula."

Azula smiled and turned to leave, but not before grinning and saying, "Before I leave, I'll be catching your show." Ty Lee was in the middle of stretching again when Azula said this and quickly began to panic again. The five left the young acrobat with Naruto forcefully dragging his friend away. "She's going to join us no matter what." Azula said darkly when they reached the edge of the forest.

Naruto quickly let go of his friend and grabbed Azula by her chest piece and slammed her into the closest tree. Azula seemed to have been expecting it and merely grinned as a result. "You should honor your friends' request. You can't have everything your way, Azula."

"I'm a princess and I want her on my team. Not like you two aren't worth something though." Her eyes landed on Zentrai as his eyes glazed over for a moment. "One of you is a pervert and the other is an assassin that holds more titles and names than even my father or I do." She shoved him away and he stared at her. "The Bloody Inferno," she repeated that name like it was a second name that all children knew about. "You earned that name after destroying and entire Firebender battalion. And you did it in only five minutes."

"Get to the point!"

The Fire Princess smiled once more. "Red Death, Bloody Inferno, Red Demon, Red Devil… these are just a handful of names you've been given and yet you don't act like how the people describe you." Naruto stood up straight for a moment as she continued. "You have far more names than just these, but each name has something in common: fire." Naruto snorted. "Are you a Firebender by any chance?"

"No. I'm not a Firebender. If I was in tuned to any of the elements it would have been wind, making me an Air Nomad. But I can't bend anything other than the will of the people before me. I can't do the things you can do, Azula. And even if I could, I probably still wouldn't." He turned and walked off as Zentrai began running towards the tents. "We're staying for the show, correct?" Azula nodded. "It won't start for a while so we've got time to kill. If you need me I'll be in the forest breaking stuff. If you need Zentrai, just find the nearest brothel and you'll find him." Naruto vanished in the darkness of the forest and left Azula and her two Firebendering guards confused.

"Red Death," one of the guards spoke up. "Should we follow him, Princess?"

"No. Leave the two of them for now. We'll use them for as long as we can." She turned on her heels and began heading back to the ship.

**Three Years Ago**

King Bumi, Omashu's leader and the world's strongest Earthbender, lead Naruto through a series of tunnels that burrowed deep under the great city. Naruto followed him without speaking. He wasn't in the mood to start talking again anyways. Even after learning the small language barrier, he was still a little confused about a dozen or so things. Bumi had tried to help him understand them, but after a few months had decided that the kind of help he needed wasn't one he could provide, and thus brought them to this secret meeting that would never officially happen.

The glowing emerald crystal that hung above their heads had Naruto looking straight at the ground. They reminded him of Sakura and it hurt to know he couldn't get back to her.

According to Bumi, Naruto had appeared from a beam of light during a small earthquake. Bumi believed the quake to be his arrival, and thus noted it as nothing important. But the light was one that had him hoping for a miracle of some sorts. After searching around where the light had appeared, he found Naruto passed out on the ground with a few objects surrounding him. One of them was a book and the others were weapons and scrolls.

"My friends will be able to help you, Naruto." Bumi said softly. Naruto's head jerked up to look at the old ruler. Bumi must have known he was looking at him because he started laughing. "Always over thinking everything… They will be able to help you understand this world better, Naruto. A friend of mine has already confirmed that you can't go back to your home and you yourself said you had died at the hands of this Madara fellow." The blond suppressed a snort and a sigh at the same time. Bumi picked up on it and acted accordingly. "The people we're about to met work for the same organization I work for. With any luck they'll take you in as their student and you'll also get to join our group with a free lifetime supply of Rock Candy!"

"Thanks," Naruto said with a laugh as he withdrew a piece of said candy. He stared at it for a moment before biting off a piece. It tasted like nothing but sugar to be honest. He remembered eating something like this once. Iruka had shown it to him by mixing hot water and sugar together. If you put something like a piece of string in the water, then the heat particles would actually clump and stick together on the string and produce a candy like this stuff. But he couldn't remember ever seeing one that was orange before.

A loud crash sounded from up ahead and Naruto instantly went on the offensive. Bumi grinned like mad and started laughing. "It sounds like they've started! Oh joy!"

_This guy is seriously insane, _Naruto thought sadly. And yet he was following him.

The two exited the tunnels into entered a large underground arena with three people standing in the center of it. Two of them were teenagers, possibly no older than Naruto, while the third was an older man with thick slabs of muscle over his body, a long beard that showed proof that all his hair had migrated from his head to his chin, and wore the green pants with an open black vest. He sized Naruto up for a moment before bowing deeply to Bumi.

"Gen Fu, it's good to see that made it. I was beginning to worry you didn't get my message." Bumi spoke with all seriousness for once.

Naruto truly didn't believe he could do it. As the man rose to his feet, so too did the two teenagers. The male wore red robes with gold trim. His long brown hair was pulled back at the moment so it was out of his chocolate colored eyes. Around his feet were dozens of daggers, stilettos, and a few shuriken. He looked confused by their presence and was constantly looking around as if he was searching for a way to escape.

The girl wore green robes with gold and silver trim. She wore dark brown pants with simple slip on shoes. A grey sash kept her robe closed. Her long black hair was left undone and covered part of her left eye, leaving the right reddish amber eye exposed. The earth was torn up around her feet and she was blinking rapidly as if dust were in her eyes.

Gen Fu stroked his beard for a moment before waving his hand towards the blond. "I can assume this is the boy you spoke of?" Omashu's King nodded and moved to the side, allowing Naruto to face the man directly. Gen Fu stroked his beard again. His eyes softened and then a smile formed on his lips. Naruto saw something in him that quickly had him picturing the Sandaime for a moment. "You have a very soft heart, don't you?" Naruto didn't reply. "I understand you are not from this world… or perhaps you are. But it doesn't matter. Do you seek knowledge from the truth of the world? Do you seek enlightenment and have the will to move beyond the pain of loss?"

"Are you gonna help me or not?" Naruto suddenly snapped. Gen Fu didn't seem pleased with his reply. Naruto inhaled deeply and sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm just trying to find my way in the world. Please excuse my behavior. I'm sorry." Naruto brought his hands together and bowed respectfully to the man.

His booming laughter filled the arena and the female started to giggle. "You need not apologize. I am an understanding old man. Though I may not look it, I am a fifty-nine years old." Naruto gawked and remembered that Tsunade had hid her age by making herself look younger. Maybe he could do something similar. His laughter died down and his eyes brightened. "I am to understand that you seek a path in this world we live in and wish to coexist with us as one. But for nearly a hundred years now we have not been as one."

"Bumi said something about that. He said you could explain things to me in a way that he couldn't and that you could help me get on with my life. But to do that he said I needed to understand this world before I could move on. How are you going to help me?"

"I am going to teach you many things, most of which will be learned on the road. I trust that Bumi has had you gather your things before he brought you down here?" Naruto nodded and motioned towards a pack he had on his shoulder. "You travel light. Very wise when on the run. Very dumb when on a journey. But it matters not. By the time we get to where we're going, you'll have more belongs than you can carry."

"Then I leave him in your capable hands." Bumi snorted while laughing as if he knew something Naruto didn't. "Naruto, remember what I taught you. A true master must think like a mad genius." He patted him on the back and then dropped back into the earth, slipping right through it as though it were merely made of cotton. Naruto gawked at this and then began shaking his head.

"He's strange, isn't he?" The girl spoke up. Gen Fu gave her the slightest of nods before turning to speak with the other boy. "My name is Lyra. It's a pleasure to meet you." She raised one hand and waited for him to take it. Naruto eyed her hand for a moment and then took it. She had a strong grip. Actually it was a lot stronger than most girls he'd ever had to the honor of shaking hands with. "Don't let my girlish figure fool you. I'm a prodigy Earthbender and apprentice to the Xing Yi Quan fighting style."

**Present Day**

Naruto snapped to alert status and turned his focus to the branch beside him. Rai was in the tree and looking at him strangely. Naruto smiled sadly and reached up to scratch his pet behind the ears. Rai happily accepted and soon was on the branch closes to his. "I bet you miss her too." He stopped scratching her and looked to the stars as the darkness began to fall. _Her show will be starting in a little bit. I suppose I should make an appearance just to keep Zentrai in line. _

Rai opened her mouth and began to whimper. The blond smiled. "Are you hungry, boy?" Rai closed his mouth and nodded. "Let's see if we can't track down something for you to eat. I'm sure this forest has something for you to eat other than roots and bugs." Rai shook his head violently with his tongue hanging out. It was just his way of saying, "That's disgusting," when it came to things he didn't like.

(-)

Azula calmly waited for the show to start. She rather enjoyed coming to shows like these. They were fun to watch. And it was only better when she was in charge. And with her power, rank, and royal blood, she was in charge of this little show. By the end of the show, Ty Lee would join her and they would be off to Omashu to find Mai. She knew Mai would want to come no matter what. She was probably the first to always jump at a chance to escape her family's claws and head out on her own.

Her eyes danced over the inside of the circus ten and then to where Ty Lee was. The young acrobat was doing her specialty: The High Wire Act. She was showing suburb balance and control as she shifted from hand to hand on the array of objects that somehow defied gravity and rested neatly on the thin wire. To some it was mere magic while others looked on as if this were nothing more than hidden mirrors and wires. But Azula knew that this act was for real and that Ty Lee was one of if not the best at this sort of stuff.

"Incredible," Azula said in mock joy and amazement. Her joyful gaze turned to the head of the circus and asked, "Do you think she'll fall?" She hoped she sounded convincing with her fear and worry for her friend.

"Of course not," he spoke quickly and tightly. It was best not to anger the princess, but this was his performer she was talking about and he was deeply prideful of her skills.

Azula smiled. "Then wouldn't it make it more interesting if you removed the net?"

He gawked at her. "Uh… the thing is… the performers…" he stammered out before being interrupted by the princess.

"You're right. You're right. That's been done." She smiled and waited for a moment. She had to make this sound convincing. "I know. Set the net on fire!"

"Of course, Princess." He quickly shot to his feet and did as he was instructed.

Naruto and Zentrai watched in awe and amazement. Not for what Ty Lee was doing, but for what the circus leader just did. _"Ty Lee's pretty incredible," _Zentrai sent to him. Naruto gave him a sharp glance as he watched his friend munch on some pop corn, feeding Shibaru between handfuls as he did. _"She's currently thinking about what a bitch Azula is. Though, that's not her direct thoughts. She's just muttering stuff about how she should have taken the offer before all of this."_

"_You don't say," _Naruto sent back. A wide assortment of exotic animals was soon released and the place was soon turned into a zoo. Rai began hungrily licking his lips as he spied some tasty Turtleducks waddling along the floor. "No, Rai. Leave the animals alone until after we leave. You can take one of the freaky bunnies as a meal when this if over." Naruto stole some of Zentrai's pop corn and stuffed it into his mouth. _"You think Azula's crazy for doing this or that we are for actually going along with the idea of working with Ozai's daughter?"_

"_I think we are since we're even here! I mean… I couldn't find a brothel! What the hell were we thinking when agreed to go with his daughter in the first place? She's nuts! Literally! Look at her! She's not a lesbian or anything. The best I can tell, she's in love with her own father, hates everyone else in her family, totally despises this girl for standing up to her and telling her she wanted to remain here! So what the hell is wrong with us?"_

Naruto offered him a flat look. _"I was talking about the mission. Not your sex life." _

"_But my life is based around sex." _Naruto still gave him a flat look. _"Unlike you, I know how to use my penis. I'm sure that Sai guy did as well with all the penis jokes he made to you when you first met him." _

"_Go back to eating your pop corn and dreaming your wet dreams about these two girls because you know you ain't getting any from either of them." _The two watched the rest of the performance with great enthusiasm. Once it was over, Zentrai threw a bundle of black floors to the young lady as she took a bow between the stampeding creatures that ran amuck of the place. Azula clapped and cheered for her friend. _"We are so doomed," _Naruto finally spoke.

(-)

Azula walked aboard the ship with Ty Lee behind her. The helmsmen gave her a quick bow before he was ordered to take them out to sea. As he left, Rai and Shibaru stood ready by their masters in their respectful assassin attire. Naruto was leaning up against the wall by the doorframe while Zentrai was squatting beside Shibaru as she licked the blood from Rai's latest kill off his hands. Rai looked content with the knowledge that there was now, one less bunny creature in the world.

"I'm sure you've heard of them, but you should meet regardless. They will be working with us as well." Azula motioned to the two of them, forcing them to do their own introduction.

Naruto sighed while rolling his eyes. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and my friend here is Zentrai. He's a perverted mute and if you wake up naked and are in pain, you can inflict as much pain on him as you want since he probably raped you." The mute gave his comrade a harsh, but hurt, glare as a result to this. "But we're assassins and our duty is to locate a special target that has been evading the Fire Lord for a while now. Since we'll be working together, I have only one thing to tell you. Don't get in my way." Naruto hastily turned and walked into the ship with Rai following right after him.

Zentrai gave his friend a quick glance before returning to his task at hand.

"He's not very friendly," Azula spoke up. She wasn't speaking for him, she was just stating it.

"No," Ty Lee said with a shake of her head. "He's just angry about working with you. His aura is darker than normal, meaning he's angry. His aura was centered on you, meaning he doesn't like you. But he had no problems with me even when he spoke to me. In fact his aura seemed to brighten for a moment." She explained. The telepath blinked and then looked to Shibaru. Ty Lee smiled. "But as for you, Zentrai, you're aura is brightly colored, meaning you're extremely happy!" She smiled and gave him a thankful expression. "It's so good to have a few boys on this ship that are our age. I hope we can get along."

"_Show me your tits," _he sent to her in the hopes that she would obey his command.

Ty Lee scratched her head and looked around. "Did you just hear someone asking us to show our tits to someone?" She asked. Azula gave her friend a strange glance before heading deeper into the ship. She needed some rest. Ordering that idiot around had made her tired and with Ty Lee now a part of her little group she'd need all the rest she could get. Ty Lee was extremely hyper and would run her down rather quickly if she wasn't careful.

The young acrobat watched her go before her gaze turned towards Shibaru. Shibaru whimpered and ran away with Zentrai instantly following after her. Ty Lee blinked in confusion. _Most animals like me. I wonder what the deal was with that thing. _She shrugged her shoulders and trotted off to find her room or Naruto. Since he could talk, she figured she might as well make their introduction a little better. He was on their team and she would have to work with him.

**Two Month Ago**

Naruto and Zentrai both walked out of the tent with their eyes staring down at the ground. Zentrai had bruises on his bruises and looked like he was about to pass out. _"I can't believe she's gone." _He turned his eyes towards the weeping children as they left the Fire Nation docks. Commander Zhao had paid them in full for their business and was personally going to let them leave. As they walked out of the iron gates and onto the road, Naruto was left wondering if their choice had been the right one. _"I can't believe she's gone… and before I could screw her!"_

"_Is that all you ever think with? Lyra is gone and all you have to say is that you wanted to have sex with her?! What's wrong with you? She was our friend and our comrade and we hurt her. She's gone because of us!" _

"_I know that! Why do you think I'm pretending to not care? Shouldn't you be pretending not to care? We scammed them and now she's gone. She'll never be seen again and the world will think she's dead. That's what she gets anyway for leaving us in the first place. She should have stayed with us rather than go out on her own. This is as much her fault as it is for accepting the mission. The only good thing about this is that we got paid and she's not a threat to us anymore."_

"_She was never a threat to begin with. And now she's missing an arm!" _Naruto hit Zentrai over the head, causing Rai to growl in delight. Shibaru started whimpering. "I'm sorry, Shibaru. We won't fight anymore. We're just tired and hurting." Zentrai moved over and scratched her long ears. _"We should head back to Omashu and see King Bumi. I heard he needed to talk to us about something through our spy network."_

"_My spy network. Not yours."_

"_Whatever… We just need to go see him and figure out what…"_

**Present Day**

"Hi," Ty Lee spoke low enough and yet loud enough for Naruto to hear her. He had his back to her and was back to his civilian clothing. Naruto cocked his head to the side as he turned slightly just so he could look her in the eye. She began to fidget. She'd heard the stories about them. They were the kind of stories that were often told by war veterans to scare other soldiers. And there was their reputation as well. So she had a good reason to be frightful at the moment.

Naruto turned away and started reading his book again. "What do you want?" He wondered if he sounded angry with her. If he was he didn't mean to. He just wanted to read his book.

"I thought that since we'll be working together, we should try to get along. You know… be friends."

Naruto turned a page on his book. "In my line of work, I don't have the luxury of having friends." She deflated for a moment upon hearing that. Naruto picked up on it and rolled his eyes. He was sounding a bit too angry at the moment. "I'm sorry. I'm just not use to having people wanna talk to me for prolong periods of time. You seem to the be the first outside of the organization I work for that is." He snapped his book shut and turned to face her. He tried to be cheerful. "What do you wish to talk about?"

"Well… how did you meet Azula? Are you her boyfriend?"

"No. I met her through her father. I'm an assassin after all and we've been paid by Fire Lord Ozai to find a specific target and bring him to him. He prefers alive but dead will do just as well. We have orders that allow us to handle all combat situations while Azula handles the mode of transportation. He can't afford to offer up one of his ships to two assassins that have dealt him heavy blows in the past and thus wants to keep his resources as close to home or in the war as much as possible. He just doesn't like the idea of forking one over to us for our own uses."

"That sounds reasonable. I can understand where he'd be coming from and all. But what I don't get is how you two managed to be friends. I watched your auras change colors when we met on the deck. Your aura kept changing from a hostile one to a calm and center one. Why is that?"

The former Jinchuuriki closed his eyes. "My friend is a mute, but he can speak by giving off small vibes. I've worked with people that couldn't or didn't talk as much as normal people do, and so it's easy to understand what they're talking about when they're not talking at all. It's sort of hard to explain but we've just understood each other through this method of _talking_ even though he's not actually speaking."

"I understand!" She all but shouted this. She was really energetic. She calmed down and looked him over for a moment. "Are you from the Fire Nation?"

Naruto looked down at the book in his hands. "I suppose so. I was born in a country that was under such a name at one time. So I suppose I am from the Fire Nation. But where I'm from they called it the Land of Fire." He forced a smile and she seemed to buy it. "I'm actually a ninja from that place and I grew up in the shadows of society sort of. We ninja don't like to be seen and tend to stick with our comrades only. The war was your business. Not ours."

"I can understand that. The war is our way of showing our greatness to the world and our desire to share it with them. But lately…" she looked away as if she wanted to say more.

Naruto picked up on it and spoke for her. "All you've seen in the devastation left in the wake of the war." She nodded sadly. "You regret what's being done and wish you could stop it but you don't wanna go against your people." She nodded again. "Don't worry about it too much. There's no point in over thinking the small things. But you should feel proud to know that you've done no wrong thus far." The blond yawned and Ty Lee soon followed suit. "We should get some rest. I have a feeling that tomorrow will be very busy for all of us." She bowed deeply and ran off. Naruto watched her go and got into his bed.

"_Azula's boyfriend…" _Zentrai said quietly to his comrade. Naruto started growling. _"I bet she'd burn you alive just for taking her virginity supposing her dad hasn't taken it yet."_

"_Go to bed, Zentrai." _The mute started laughing as he too slipped into bed.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

Chapter 4

Mai wasn't happy. Mai was never happy unless in the company of her boyfriend or while getting to do something exciting, like fight Earthbenders or any other enemy. But when the fight was over she would return to her brooding and mull over the times she had with Zuko before his banishment, or Ty Lee and Azula. How she missed them. She missed being with them, but wouldn't mind skipping out on all the pranks that Azula put her through.

She sighed for the millionth time as she walked through her room in the great city of Omashu. She didn't like it here. This place was nuts. The King, a powerful Earthbending King at that, had surrendered just as soon as they had launched the attack. She wasn't here though, but she heard about it. According to one person he had looked someone in the eye and told them to do nothing. What sort of King does that? It didn't make sense to her. If someone came to invade the Fire Nation, they'd fight like hell to drive said people out. And yet this King, this nut job, had ordered all of his troops to surrender… while laughing!

She messaged her temples and crashed down onto her bed. It was very comfy, very big, very fluffy, and very annoying. She didn't know if it was too fluffy, to styled, or not fluffy enough or even not stylish enough. She didn't know what made her angry at the thing, only that it actually annoyed her.

She groaned as she heard the sirens call for her. Her father was probably requesting another meeting with her and the other people that were still trying to round up all of the Resistance Fighters in this city. She stopped and glanced out the window for a moment. _I wonder what Zuko's doing right now? _She paused and figured he was still hard at work on the sea. _I wonder Ty Lee and Azula are doing._

(-)

"Do you have any idea on where you're going?" Naruto asked calmly. He was leaning up against a metal wall. He suddenly bumped his head against the ceiling and groaned. "Why can't we just walk like normal human beings? Are you so high that you believe yourself to be above everyone other than your family?"

Azula cut her eyes towards the blond as she too soon was bounced along the ground. "Why can't these idiots work this stuff out?" She snapped. Naruto took pleasure in her discomfort and leaned back against the metal wall.

They were riding in what Naruto could only assume was a high powered tank. Like the Firebending tanks that most Firebenders used to travel great distances across most of the land, usually from village to village to protect their supply lines, this was a longer and faster version of it. It was like a train with its many compartments, but there were no tracks for it to move on. It moved on the same wheel concepts the tanks did.

It sported multiple sections that housed either animals' for transport across rocky terrain, food, clothing, or in their current case a private place them that was equipped with all the modern day things that Azula took joy in. She enjoyed this thing about as much as Naruto probably did at the moment.

"So what is this thing? It's like those stupid siege tanks, but faster and lightweight." He offered up a quick raise of his brow and she merely huffed as a reply. "You don't know what it is, do you?" She kept her mouth shut. Naruto chuckled. "You actually have no idea what this strange thing is, yet you're using it. Interesting," he laughed some more.

"Do you mind? I'm trying to meditate." She lied.

"You meditate?" Ty Lee asked curiously. Azula grew a vein on the side of her head. It quickly vanished as Ty Lee took up a thoughtful expression. "Well I suppose you would have to with your bending, wouldn't you? It does require a bit of concentration." Her eyes were quickly drawn to Naruto. "Do you meditate?"

"Yes. It's how Zentrai and I get ready for an attack. We meditate a lot actually. Though," Naruto's eyes were quickly drawn to his friend. He was currently resting against Shibaru and sleeping. It was pretty easy to tell what he was dreaming about with the tent he had pitched between his legs. "I think I actually meditate more than he does." Ty Lee gave him a quick glance before covering her mouth with her hands. "Don't stare at him or it because they might get ideas. I think that's where his brain is most of the time."

The young acrobat hastily looked away while Azula shook her head in disgust. "How can you stand to work for such a disgusting person?"

"He's not as bad as he seems. When we're serious about completing a mission or staying alive, he's all serious and is one of the most feared assassins aside from me. There's a reason why he earned the nickname Silent Death." Naruto reached over and scratched Rai's ear behind his horn. "He's only this bad to fool people into believing he's not a threat. He's a very serious threat, even to me at times. We spend a lot of time training and seeing who can win the matches by either admitting defeat first or by using our abilities. In the end we always end it in a draw. Neither of us has ever won a match over the other. The score is still at two hundred and fifty draws."

"He must be pretty impressive when he fights seriously then." Ty Lee carefully looked to Shibaru and was instantly getting growled at. She scooted back and away from the strange beast while Rai seemed to look up at his partner before lying back down. "I wonder why Shibaru doesn't like me. Usually all animals like me."

"It's probably because Zentrai's not using her to lure in women to have sex with," Naruto commented off handedly. Ty Lee arched a brow but bought his explanation. It did confuse Naruto a bit though. Shibaru loved getting attention, no matter what. She enjoyed to the point that one would think a hyper active acrobat would give her so much she'd probably die from the joy of it all. "Rai doesn't like much attention though, unless it's from me. He usually attacks anyone that gets too close to him or me actually. He doesn't like anyone, but there are a few exceptions he'll make."

"What are they, exactly?" Azula spoke up now. She was eyeing Rai at the moment. The strange beast was offering up a quick glare before returning his head to his master's lap. Naruto quickly began to pet him to sooth his nerves. "I've never seen animals like them before. They must be very exotic. Are there more?"

"No. Rai and Shibaru are the only ones like this. We've searched the world over for more of them without any luck." Naruto answered quickly. Although it was a half lie, Azula bought it, but Naruto decided to continue anyways. "Shibaru is very crafty and loves to be pampered, but when cornered will attack with more ferocity than what she shows. Rai is an excellent hunter and tracker. He's just like the pet of a friend of ours. Her name is June and she rides around on some mole creature. I can't remember the name of it, but his scent tracking abilities are pretty good when compared to her pet. The only difference would be that it has to be some short distance, not from continent to continent like her pet can do."

"Truly fascinating," the Fire Princess remarked. "How much would it cost for you to part with your pet?"

Naruto began scratching Rai's ears again. "No amount of money in the world will force me to abandon Rai or Shibaru. Rai's been like a little four-legged son to me at times. When we first found them we had to pamper them just to keep them alive. So as a result, we sort of see them as children from time to time. I mean, we have to feed them, water them, and bathe them. So it's understandable why we or at least I would see Rai as my child."

"I used to do the same thing when I had a pet," Ty Lee jumped into the conversation. "But it died because I played with it too much." She added sadly.

"Yes, I remember your little pet. Good times," Azula chimed in.

_Possibly good times because you fried it, bitch. _Naruto thought. The blond inhaled deeply and leaned back against the metal wall as the thing shook violently as it hit every bump along the way. "How good is Mai at what she does?"

Ty Lee beamed with happiness at the mention of her friend. "Mai's very skilled with long range attacks! I bet you could do what she does blind-folded if she wanted to. She's never once missed as far as I know. Any target she aims for she hits. I wish she could have come with me to the circus when I ran away to join it. We would have had so much fun. She used to have a crush on Zuko, Azula's brother. He was banished some time ago and I haven't seen him since."

"So she's basically like Zentrai, just not as good?" Ty Lee shrugged. She hadn't seen Zentrai fight or use his weapons yet, so she couldn't judge the two yet. But she did know that Mai was very skilled with them, and that's what counted in her book.

Naruto scratched his head as he tried to picture this Mai person. He knew most of the royal members of the Fire Nation through their spy network. But this girl escaped him. That meant one of two things. Either she was very well protected by her family and not meant to see the light of day, which would only contradict what Ty Lee and Azula had told him about her, or she was someone that knew how to stay off their radar. Neither of these seemed plausible, and the idea that she was a new born prodigy was always unlikely. That only meant that their spy network was lacking in some areas.

"But she's not very outgoing without good motivation and she's rather gloomy looking all the time." Ty Lee informed him. Naruto perked upon hearing that. He still didn't know this girl, but he at least had a better idea on why he hadn't heard of her yet. Ty Lee kicked back and leaned against the wall while maintaining her distance from the two large beasts. "I wonder if her brother's been born yet. Her mother was due to have another child soon. Or maybe they already had it?" She started rambling about when the baby could have been born and how old it might be.

"So she has a brother? Got a name?" Ty Lee shrugged. "I'm guessing you don't know it either, Azula?" Azula kept her mouth shut. "Right… Ignore me. That's real mature of you, Azula. My how your dad must love you when you've got a stick up your ass. Tell me, did you feel anything when it went in?" Her response was to glare at him. Naruto smiled to that. "I'm supposed to help you track down your brother and uncle, remember. I could easily make you be out here in the wilderness for some time before deciding on where and how to capture them. And I can choose a route that will force you to leave all this behind. So don't get snippy with me."

"That doesn't make much sense," Ty Lee stated strangely. She looked, acted, and sounded confused when she said this. As she pointed to Naruto, she suddenly had a strange feeling that things were about to turn bad as she said, "Why is that you can do this when most people would have been shot full of lightning just for speaking badly to her? Are you sure you're not dating?"

Azula visibly blanched at the idea of that. "No, Ty Lee. I'm not dating this peasant."

"Right, I'm just your escort and tracker and fighter until this is all over. Once I have my target, and depending how well she behaves if she can follow my orders, we'll go our separate ways with either me having her head in a bag to deliver to a bounty board in the Earth Kingdom somewhere or without it. I'm still not fully sure if I should just kill you now and take your head directly to the board, wait a few weeks and then start the search on my own. I'm sure it would save me the hassle in the end."

"You dare threaten me!"

"Yes! I dare threaten you!"

Naruto and Azula began glaring at one another. Rai took up his master's side and started growling at the Fire Princess. When Azula raised two fingers to do a quick fire blast, Naruto raised both hands, one of them sporting the hidden blade he carried while the other held three throwing knives.

"Enough," Ty Lee shouted as she got between the group. "We shouldn't be fighting! This is not healthy! Your auras are turning dark and it's bad for your skin!" She tried to reason with them, but Azula didn't look like she was convinced and prepared to attack. Naruto lowered his arm holding up the hidden blade for a moment before dropping it slightly. Realizing that the crises wasn't over yet, and that Azula was about to attack, she hurriedly moved up to Naruto and blocked the chi in his other arm. This sudden act confused but pleased Azula. She stopped her attack.

Naruto stared down at his limp limb and then closed his eyes. _She's good, _he realized as he forced his energy into the blocked points. They reverted to normal and allowed him to use his arm again. _But she's not as good as Neji._ He flexed his limb and then gave Ty Lee a hard glance as she stared at him in shock. "Don't act so surprised, Ty Lee. I'm not called the Bloody Inferno for nothing. Though, I don't actually like that nickname."

"Do you prefer Red Death, Red Devil, or Red Demon over it?" Azula snapped. She hadn't expected him to be able to break open his blocked points with such ease. Sure it was just one arm, but no one had ever done that as far as she knew. _Maybe Ty Lee is slipping? _

Naruto continued to flex his hand and Ty Lee continued to stare at it. "How did you do that?" She asked. Naruto continued to flex his hand as she continued. "I know that over time the blocked points would return to normal, but you just forced them open after being closed. And you did it without having anyone to help you with healing."

"My energy is actually a lot stronger than most people and I have much more. It's sort of how I got the nickname Red Devil because I never seemed to get tired during a fight. Most benders will get tired after prolonged usage of their bending and can even lose the ability if they exert themselves too much. It's one of the reasons why I'm happy to not be a bender. I don't have to worry about doing silly dance moves like everyone else while they fight."

Ty Lee giggled at his statement while Azula rolled her eyes. The art of bending the elements wasn't a dance; it was their method of fighting. All bending originated from humans studying the animals that could bend. By studying these animals they were able to learn how to bend the elements. It wasn't an easy task, but they did manage it. Some animals were actually much harder to envision while they bent the elements to their whim while some were easier.

It was at this time that Zentrai decided to wake up and sleepily rubbed his eyes. His eyes turned to his comrade and he gave him a blinking stare. Naruto suddenly stiffened. "We're not at Omashu yet, Zentrai. We should be there in a few hours."

"New Ozai," Azula said sternly. Naruto gave her a quick glance to show his confusion. "I'm renaming the place in honor of my father. It will be called the City of New Ozai."

"That makes sense. Destroy the history of a great city and replace it with the name of your father. You must be in love with your own father." Naruto commented darkly. Azula didn't appreciate the dig. But Naruto continued before she could snap at him. "Omashu will always be known by that name, no matter what new name you give it. You can't simply expect people to take a liking to the name just because of your rank in the world. And furthermore, the city has a history with that name and as such will remain just as it is to me."

"Am I to assume that you could come up with a better name for the city?" She gave him a hopeful, yet mocking, glance. Naruto snorted at her and shook his head. She smiled. "I thought so. You're just a lowly peasant with no backing or intellect. You see a target and you kill it. That's how you operate."

"One could say the same for you," Naruto replied with a smile. Once more she didn't appreciate the dig and was about to make a retort when Naruto said, "And suppose you do rename the city and capture another city just like it… what will you do, call the place the City of New New Ozai? And after that will you do the same? Or will you be the ultimate bitch that you are and call it the City of New Azula?"

The Fire Princess glared at him for a minute before turning away, her silence offering up the answer to his question.

Zentrai looked between the two girls and then his comrade before looking down at Shibaru. _"Did I miss anything, girl?" _She yawned as a result and he smiled. His eyes turned to his friend and Naruto snorted. _"Did I miss anything important?"_

"_No, though your mini-tent seemed to get some sort of reaction from Ty Lee."_

"_Did she appreciate the knowledge of how big I am?"_

"_We both know that you were awake and that was one of your weapons… not your penis." _

"_That's mean and low and dirty!" _

Naruto yawned and scratched the side of his head with his middle finger. This was watched by the two girls, whom blinked upon seeing it and who it was pointed to. Azula's eyes narrowed on the two of them. "Did I miss something?" She cooed happily. Any chance to get revenge on either of these two would bring much joy to her.

"That's just how we say hello to one another when we wake up." Zentrai quickly flipped Naruto off and remained doing so until Rai started growling at him. "Good boy," Naruto said while petting his pet. Ty Lee giggled as the large carnivorous beast began to act like a dog with his tongue hanging out and panting happily to his master's actions. Naruto suddenly stopped and leaned back against the metal wall again. "We should stop to get something to eat for these two."

"We'll stop when we get to New Ozai." Azula declared. Naruto shrugged and stood up. She eyed him and asked, "Where are you going?"

"To find some poor bastards to feed to these two. I'm sure you've got a few guards on this thing that would make good meals for these two." Rai began smacking his lips while Shibaru began mocking eating.

Azula bared her teeth and took a calming breath. Why was it that this guy knew how to push her buttons? She ordered the thing to stop and allowed the two large pets, along with their masters and one happy acrobat to head out into the thick forest that they had stopped in. Ty Lee was rather happy to be out of the thing and in a place where she could stretch her limbs without fear of hitting someone. Shibaru and Rai simply ran off into the woods to find something to eat while Naruto and Zentrai waited in the shade of a large tree for them to return.

Azula stayed in the tank-like device, but kept her gaze fixated on the two.

Ty Lee jumped up into a tree and started practicing her balancing act on several small limbs, even going as far to jump from one to the other. If she was showing off, she wasn't doing a good job at the moment. Neither of the boys seemed to be interested, which did hurt her a bit.

Ty Lee was by nature a tease and could easily wrap a boy around her fingers. It was a natural gift she had, but that gift backfired if she got more than one attracted to her. She knew she was cute and had royal blood in her veins, which was one of the reasons she could snag a boy very easily. But that was a curse because generally if she got too many following her, they'd start fighting or asking questions on which one she liked the most. And then she was in a jam. It was hard for her to even consider hurting a friend, let alone boyfriend material.

She pouted for a moment and then watched as Zentrai stood up and stretched. Naruto eyed him for a moment while Ty Lee waited to see what he was going to do. Without looking he flung a stiletto up at her and barely missed her cheek. She didn't move. If she did she would have certainly fallen from her high spot in the tree. But before she could ask why he did that, a large bird fell out of the tree and hit the ground head first.

"You should pay more attention to your surroundings, Ty Lee." Naruto said quickly.

He turned to face her and watched as she stared down at the dead bird. It was a giant predator bird of some kind with nasty razor teeth on its beck and long claws. Naruto stared at it for a moment before whistling. Almost as if he'd known about the free meal, Rai bounced into view and pounced the thing, making damn sure it was dead before wolfing it down. After the bird was eaten he returned to his hunt for more food.

Ty Lee jumped down for fear of another monster like that being in the woods and hastily moved to the shadow of the vehicle they were using. "How did you know it was there?" She asked in mild panic.

"We heard it." Naruto half lied. He had heard it getting ready to strike while Zentrai had started reading all surface thoughts within a hundred meter radius. "You should probably stay right there for the time being. I can hear a few more out in the woods and they don't sound very happy that we let Rai and Shibaru out in there to eat them."

"Are you sure they'll be okay?" Azula asked in mock concern. Naruto laughed and she furred her brows together. "What's so funny?"

"Those two will be fine. I'm just worried that they might eat everything in this forest right now. They have monstrous appetites after all." Naruto answered.

"How much longer till we reach Oma… I mean New Ozai?" Ty Lee corrected her question very quickly.

"We should be there by tomorrow morning," Azula answered sharply. "That is of course if we don't have any more problems with you and your two children." She made sure to throw that back in their faces. Zentrai was focusing on her chest or lack thereof a chest, while Naruto just shrugged. Azula didn't like the fact that neither of them had a reaction to this, but she let it slide. She'd find something to annoy them with. She growled in the back of her mind and realized that this had to do with something she probably did that her father didn't like. That was the only explanation for why she was paired up with them at the moment. _I must have done something to anger father. _She looked towards the direction they were heading and then stood up. _I should send warning to Mai that we're coming. Having her greet me in person and first will make things go much more smoothly than meeting with her parents first._

(-)

Mai should have spoken up when her father ordered everyone out of the city. She was probably the first one to guess their idea for what they were actually. What better way to kidnap a child, let alone the new governor of Omashu, than with a plague that magically hit everyone just so they could sneak the kid of and get ready to demand a ransom. No doubt they'd want their leader back. She knew that she shouldn't be surprised, but she honestly was when she noticed her baby brother missing from his crib.

Realizing there was no point in complaining or worrying over this, she went back to playing with one of her many stiletto blades. She flipped it around and around on her finger before it became boring and then just started throwing them blindly at a target on the far end of her room. It smacked with a thunk in-between a cultural artifact that her father had presented to her when they took over the place. She stared at both of them before she continued throwing the projectiles she carried.

When she threw five more she got bored and went back to lying back down on her bed. _It's not comfy enough, _she thought. She shifted to her side and groaned when that didn't help either. She tried lying face down. That didn't help either. Realizing that it was impossible to get comfortable on the bed, she jumped up and walked over to her weapons, pulling all of them out of the strange thing. _I should try something else, _she thought.

A messenger hawk flew into the room, getting her attention when it called to her. It bore the Fire Nation emblem on its case and she slowly tore the scroll out of it. She skimmed over it for a moment and then smiled. "So Azula's coming over? Oh joy to the world," she said while crumpling up the scroll and tossing it into the waste bin.

(-)

When morning came and the message that Azula was here in got to Mai and her parents, things were quickly seen spiraling out of control. Mai had practically run, in her own way mind you, to see her friend. Her parents continued to cry over the loss of their son and what would soon happen to them for letting all the civilians go. And of course, what few guards there were at the moment cowered slightly in fear to what also came with the message.

For Mai, she simply waited at the steps to her parent's place and watched Azula, in her pampered thrown and hidden behind the curtains came into view with Ty Lee walking two or three paces behind her. Up front, however, we two unknown figures that she didn't like just by the way they presented themselves. They walked in front of Azula, something no one but her Imperial Firebenders could do and had to do for her protection. They both wore white and were dressed to kill. And with the two large beasts at their side, it was amazing that neither of them, their pets included, weren't charred remains yet.

She stood deathly still as they approached. Azula's Palin King bearers gently set her down and opened the curtains. Mai brought her hands together and formally bowed to the princess. When she looked up, her eyes danced over the two boys that kept their faces hidden behind the hoods they wore. She looked to Azula with the same bored expression she'd always offered her when they were children as she said, "Please tell me you're here to kill me."

Naruto and Zentrai were lost to this, but Azula, after a few seconds, began chuckling. Obviously it was an inside joke.

Azula put a hand on her friend's shoulders and offered a flashy smile as she said, "It's great to see you, Mai."

Ty Lee was more open and engulfed her friend in a hug. The brooding weapon mistress patted her on the back as she recalled their last meeting. "I thought you ran off to join the circus. You said it was your calling." She asked while breaking free of the hug.

"Well… Azula called a little louder." Mai knew what that meant and wasn't about to say anything concerning the method she used.

"I have a mission. And I need you both." Azula began.

"Count me in! Anything to get me out of this place," Mai snapped quickly. Naruto arched a brow but said nothing. He didn't want to ruin the moment and risk not learning anything from this little meeting of friends. But it was then that Mai decided to speak to them. "So what's with you two? I've never seen Imperial Firebenders wear your type of clothing."

Naruto waited to see what Azula would do. As with Ty Lee, she forced them to do their own introduction. The blond calmly removed his hood, revealing his sapphire eyes to her and the long hair he had. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and this is my comrade, Zentrai. He's a mute and a skilled long range fighter. We're assassins, not Imperial Firebenders." The very mention of the word sent chills down Mai's spin. Naruto caught her unease and raised a hand. "No worries for you. You're not on our list. In fact, it seems the world doesn't know about you." She smiled to that. She'd rather not be on an assassins list, let alone be known to the world with all the things the Fire Nation was doing.

"They're here to help in capturing or killing a target for father," Azula finished. "Now," she began slowly and with a dark tone. "I wish to speak with your father. He's clearly ruining the good name of the Fire Nation and making a mess of things over here. I demand to see him."

"Of course, Princess Azula." Mai hastily lead them to her father's throne room where she was greeted by dozens of Firebenders, all of them poised to defend their princess from the two assassins should they decide to attack her. Mai waved the guards away knowing that they weren't needed. It didn't matter in the end. They followed closely behind them just to ensure the safety of their mistress. When they got to the chamber, Azula sent one of to find Mai's parents and call them for a meeting while the guards positioned themselves outside and out of way.

"Nice place," Ty Lee chirped.

Naruto shrugged. "I've been here once before. I spent a year here before heading out into the world to see it for what it truly is." He shrugged his shoulders. "This place does bring back some memories."

"So you really are from the Earth Kingdom," Azula cooed. This was one more thing to hold over their heads later. She shifted in her throne chair and leaned down on her fist with her elbow propped up on the arm rests. "Our spies told us you spent time here; though I didn't truly believe them since you magically seemed to have appeared here one day. Tell me: how did you get here?"

"I fell from the sky." Naruto chirped. Azula wasn't amused. Naruto leaned against the wall and folded his arms over his chest. "I spent some time here with King Bumi before heading out with my master. He trained me in his style, along with his daughter. We both earned honorary titles as the Demon/Angel of the Iron Fist Style. To the Earth Kingdom she was a heaven sent warrior. For me and my enemies, I was considered a demon from hell that arose to destroy everything in my path. Even my allies believed this to be true. Can't say I blame them though. I am a demon when it comes to fighting."

"So what they say about you is true," Mai inquired. Naruto tilted his head to the side and stared at her for a moment. She closed her eyes and repeated what she'd heard about them as if she were reading it from right in front of her. "The Red Devil is a monster of flames. He bathes his enemies in the Fires of Hell and slaughters all that stand before him. He lives to kill and maim. So best stay out of his way. Less you want to be made a meal of the Red Devil."

Naruto chuckled deeply to that and soon was laughing.

"That's nothing to laugh about," Ty Lee said quietly.

"No… it's just that back when I was a child people used to call me all sorts of names for my powers and how I got them. But none of them ever made a rhyme out of it. Do I scare you people that much?" He continued to laugh.

"It doesn't really rhyme," Azula commented. She had heard of that little rhyme or whatever one would call it, and she didn't truly believe it to be true. But she was willing to admit that hearing about what one could do and seeing what one could do where totally different things. Maybe his name and the fear behind it held some truth when you saw his power in all its glory. She certainly never had, and she personally wanted to see it. She wanted to see his power and challenge it.

Naruto slowly stopped laughing and said, "It's close enough to a rhyme for me," through his giggles. He soon stopped and smoothed a hand over his chest. "But that power caused me to have a lot of problems when I was young. I dare say that if the Fire Nation had probably found a way to grab me when I was kid, I would have probably joined them just to have a friend." He thought back to his time in Konoha when he was a child and searching for a friend. It was hard on him growing up without friends, but he managed.

"You must have had a terrible life as a child," Ty Lee said quietly. Naruto shrugged as the doors were thrown open to allow two people to run in. They wore robes of the Fire Nation and had their hair done in the normal manner of all Fire Nation people. But it was the fact that Mai stiffened slightly that alerted Naruto to who they were. These were the people in charge of the city. These were her parents.

They bowed deeply at her feet, Mai and Ty Lee doing the same. The guards remained standing at her side and didn't dare move in her presence. "I apologize," the man said quickly. "You've come to Omashu at a difficult time. At noon, we're making a trade with the resistance to get Tom-Tom back."

Azula took this in and inhaled deeply through her nose. She wasn't one for political issues like these. To her this was just another loss in the war, just like her mother was. But she had to act like a leader. "Yes, I'm so sorry to hear about your son. But really, what did you expect by just letting all the citizens leave?" She stood up, her form now apposing to the two parents. "My father has trusted you with this city. And you're making a mess of things!"

"Forgive me, Princess!" He begged.

The Fire Princess walked up to her friends as they rose to their feet. "You stay here. Mai will handle the hostage trade so you don't have a chance to mess it up. And there is no more Omashu. I'm renaming it in honor of my father: The City of New Ozai." The grieving parents kept their heads down for fear of having them cut off. As Azula looked them over, a guard dropped dead, courtesy of Zentrai and two of his daggers. "What are you doing?" She asked calmly.

Zentrai cut the head off, spilling more blood onto the red carpet. The two parents gawked at this and watched as the head was stuffed into a bag and placed on Zentrai's hip. "He's one of our targets," Naruto offered up. He withdrew a scroll and presented it to the shocked parents. The Firebending guards looked ready to attack now as the teen began reading off the scroll. "This man was to be killed on sight for the wrongful deaths of two women that he raped and tortured under the belief that they were Earth Kingdom spies. He supposedly died a year ago at one of the great sieges on the walls of Ba Sing Se. He's also wanted for rape, kidnap, and all around being a Fire Nation soldier." Naruto rolled the scroll up after retrieving if from Azula. He turned to his comrade and nodded. "Dispose of the body."

Zentrai nodded and started throwing his weapons down into the body, turning him into a pincushion.

"You're a monster!" Mai's mother proclaimed.

Naruto rolled his eyes at her words and his friend's antics. "Get rid of the body. Don't turn into one of your little target dummies!" Zentrai deflated instantly but soon perked back up when he grabbed the body and flung it over the balcony. Naruto waited a moment, letting this register with his brain on what he just did. When the body smacked the ground, which everyone heard, Naruto added, "That's not what I was aiming for, but that works."

Azula shrugged it off and turned to face the older teen. "You'll be helping us during the hostage trade." She informed him.

"No I won't." Naruto snapped. Her eyes narrowed slightly, but Naruto didn't back down. "We have orders to _only _capture or kill our target. This little side mission is nothing to us. We don't get anything out of it. And personally, I don't want to do it, because you'll be leading the group. I have no problems with women leading people, as I've known a few that were very good at it. But you, you're a bitch, I hate you, and when this is all said and done, there's an eighty percent chance that I'll be taking your head when we leave. So we're not helping. If you need us, we'll somewhere watching this play out and watching you make a fool of yourself. Until then, screw you, I'm going to go find some rock candy." Naruto turned and jumped off the balcony with Rai following right behind him.

Zentrai and Shibaru watched the teen jump from building to building as he went in search of his precious candy.

Azula's cough got their attention. "I trust you'll be joining us?" Zentrai blinked. "You can at least give me an answer through some method of communication." Zentrai blinked again and then raised his middle finger. Ty Lee slapped her hands over her mouth to stop from giggling. "You dare raise a finger to me?!" Zentrai raised the other hand, also sporting the middle finger, and with the thumb out as well. Azula hissed at them and turned on her heels, leaving with Mai and a giggling Ty Lee right behind her.

"_Nice ass!" _Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee stopped cold and turned around.

"Did you just hear something?" Mai asked as her eyes darted from shadow to shadow in the room. None of the guards would have dared something like that, and her father and mother certainly wouldn't say it either. But she didn't know anything about Zentrai and he was the only one in the room that was left. "Were you really staring at my ass?"

"He's a mute. He can't talk." Azula snapped. She too heard the voice and was outraged by it. "Let's go, ladies. We have a hostage to take back."

Zentrai cocked his head to the side and watched the ladies go, his eyes glued to their asses as they walked down the hall and out of view. Mai's parents stared at him and when he took notice of them, he blinked as though he were confused and then jumped off the balcony after giving a mock one finger salute with Shibaru right behind him.

(-)

By the time noon rolled around, Naruto had already had his fill of the rock candy, and he and Zentrai were standing a good distance away from where the trade would take place. They would still be able to see everything, but everyone would appear as ants to them and their abilities wouldn't be noticed. Sure they would see Azula shooting blue fire since she clearly didn't want to give up Bumi for some two year old. It wouldn't be that far a stretch to believe that she'd kill the baby, Bumi, and the resistance fighters that had shown up to the meeting place. But Azula could possibly make nice and release Bumi to the resistance and take back the child.

Naruto thought about that for a moment and then shook his head. _"Azula won't turn over Bumi for some two year old," _Zentrai confirmed for him. Naruto nodded. _"If she does anything, it will be to kill both hostages and the resistance fighters that showed up. They'd have a better chance of getting Bumi back if it were the parents. But with the way Bumi is acting and speaking with me right now, he doesn't want to be saved."_

"_To bad you can't let me talk to him. I'd really like to ask him a few questions."_

"_Don't worry about it. He's only telling me that it's not his time to leave Omashu or free himself. He plans to wait it out until something happens that will let him take back the city without anyone losing their lives… excluding the Fire Nation of course."_

Naruto shrugged and decided to sit back and watch the show play out. He didn't need to hear what was being said since it was pretty obvious. Azula was being her bitchy and controlling self by manipulating Mai into forcing her to let the crane take Bumi back up so he couldn't Earthbend, not like it matter though. Naruto and Zentrai both knew that Bumi could actually Earthbend with just his eyebrows. That's how powerful he was. And he was considered to be the strongest Earthbender in the world.

This of course lead to one figure jumping up, an amazing feat mind you, to where Bumi was. Naruto missed most of it because of how far away they were, but it was still pretty obvious that it wasn't a normal ability. The person had used a glider of some sort to fly up to him. He started messing with the chain as soon as he got up there while Azula ran towards the statue of Ozai that was still being built. She was intent on following them.

And while they were doing that, Mai and Ty Lee started their fight with the other two people, clearly not interested in saving the child at all with the way they were fighting them. Naruto did understand one thing from this fight though. Although they were both far away, they could still see what was going on. The girl in the group was a Waterbender and a pretty good one since she used the boards to block Mai's attacks and then pull Ty Lee back away from the man in the group.

But there were several unknowns happening at the moment. When Azula appeared and the chain was severed, Bumi and the other kid fell and then seemed to bounce off something. Naruto at first played this off as a trick on his eyes, but when he thought about it, there was only one explanation. _"Metalbending or Earthbending," _he asked. He was searching for conformation to this, but Zentrai stayed quiet for a while before answering.

"_That's not Metalbending… or at least none that I've seen. If he's a beginner, he's got some talent, but Metalbending is hard, and is believed to be the hardest type of Earthbending there is. As far as I know, only a handful of people can bend metal, but even they say they suck at it. If he knows Metalbending, he's clearly got some talent. But as for it being Earthbending, I'd be leaning more towards that… or Airbending."_

"_That's not possible. The last Airbender died years ago. How could he know Airbending if he wasn't around a hundred years ago?"_

"_He could be the Avatar."_

"_No. The Avatar died years ago."_

"_No. He vanished without a trace. That doesn't mean he died." _Zentrai explained while breathing heavily. Naruto gave his comrade a sharp glance and watched him shake his head. _"I can't connect to his mind or that of Bumi's any longer. They're either out of range or have locked their minds with fear of what's happening." _His eyes moved to where the other fight was taking place. _"But I can see where you're coming with this. If he was the Avatar, he'd be a hundred years old by now, maybe older. And that was a kid. But there are rumors that the Avatar as resurfaced into the world again."_

"_That doesn't prove anything. Those rumors have been going around for years now. A hundred years to be precise," _Naruto countered. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a piece of orange rock candy. He stared at if for a moment before stuffing it back into his pocket. _"Let's say that you're right and that it is the Avatar. How can we prove that he is what he says he is if he doesn't look the part? We've seen hundreds of people that look like the spitting image of him when he was discovered a hundred years ago. He was an Air Nomad prodigy. And we've seen hundreds of people that look like him from back then."_

"_But what about our target? He looks like the Avatar from back then before he vanished. The Fire Nation paid us to take this mission. Who's the only person that could be a threat to the Fire Nation outside of the Earth Kingdom and what few Water Tribes are fighting them?" _Naruto gritted his teeth. _"I know Bumi would have said something to us, to me even, but what if he is the Avatar? You know what our organization would demand of us."_

"_If he is the Avatar, we'd have to protect him." _The blond ran a hand through his hair and sighed. _"I want proof he's the Avatar before we kill him. If he is the Avatar, he's got some explaining to do. The first being how he'd look so young when he should be an old man that walks with a cane by now."_

"_Maybe he got frozen in a block of ice while being in the Avatar-State, saving his life." _Naruto once more gave his friend a strange glance. Zentrai sighed. _"Okay, I know bad theory. But at least I'm trying. And besides, the original mission seems too dangerous anyways. How would we escape? Are you expecting me to die along with you, or do you simply want to be a hero and go down swinging after taking out the Fire Lord?"_

Naruto gritted his teeth and turned away. The original mission had been paid in full already by the Council of Five at the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se. When the war began to come to their home they pleaded with them to take a mission to kill the Fire Lord by any means necessary. In doing so, they realized that they would have to sacrifice a great deal just to do something like this. Naruto and Zentrai would have to take mission from Fire Nation soldiers and generals before getting an audience with the Fire Lord. And even then they knew he'd be protected.

The problem was that if the Fire Lord fell to them, not only would he be succeeded by a new leader, but their glory for doing something like that would also make them highly wanted by the Fire Nation. They'd literally send troops out just to find them and end them. Sure they could vanish, but with everything Naruto had said about how people would look up to them for what they've done, if he did that, they'd see them as heroes and strive to protect them and all die in vain.

In the end the only option would be to go down swinging in front of them and pray that the new ruler would end the war. Not like that would happen though. Azula was currently heir to the throne and was more viscous than her father in almost every way possible. Sure they could kill Azula now and try to get in close to the Fire Lord again, but that would backfire on them. Ozai probably knew of their mission already and would surely backstab them sometime or later before they could get to the gates.

"_He lost his wife," _Naruto offered up. Zentrai shot him a hard glare. _"That won't work, I know. But it's the only option I can think of. I bet he screens his own children before they enter into his presence, never mind a hooker."_

"_He must beat off a lot then," _the mute said idly.

"_Cut the shit… We got a situation on our hands." _Naruto stopped and considered what Zentrai said a moment later. _"Okay you also make a good point. He probably does beat off a lot. But that's not the issue at hand."_

"_What issue are you talking about? I'm lost now." _

"_You stay lost half the time."_

"_At least I know how to use my dick!" _

"_Well at least I know how… Wait? How in the hell are we friends if we do this all the time?" _Zentrai shrugged his shoulders, showing proof to anyone watching that they were talking. Naruto sighed. _"You know what… forget it. Let's just focus on the task at hand and move up from there. So do you think that kid was doing advanced Earthbending a low level Metalbending?" _

"_I still think it was Airbending, but I can't be sure. We'd have to talk to him and see it up close to get complete verification on it. And besides, Bumi's returning to his prison hold in the sky and the others are getting away on a giant beaver." _Naruto sighed but noted that the giant creature was too small to see clearly and would also be needed to confirm that the Avatar was their target. If it was their target, then they had to stop the mission. But with no proof he was the Avatar, they would settle for taking the kid to the Fire Lord and trying to kill Ozai then.

"_Let's head back to the others. By now things will have settled down. Don't talk with Bumi anymore. I doubt he'll want to talk to us at the moment." _Zentrai gave a quick nod and the two dropped down from the poles they were standing on.

(-)

When things had quieted down and slightly returned to normal, Naruto, Zentrai, Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai were seen heading out of the city of New Ozai. Naruto still called Omashu to just piss of Azula, though he claimed that he did it because it would forever be called that by him. Azula had nothing to say to this anymore. She now just accepted it for what it was. He was a jerk and would do anything and everything just to piss her off. And just like last time, Naruto and Zentrai both walked in front of her as she was carried in her Palin King. Ty Lee and Mai both worked the correct way and walked behind Azula, just like they were supposed to.

"So we're tracking down your brother and uncle, huh?" Mai asked.

"It'll be interesting seeing Zuko again. Won't it Mai?" Ty Lee cut in with a grin. Mai turned her away to hide her smile. She didn't have to hide the fact that she had a crush on Zuko.

Azula closed her eyes to gather her thoughts and conceal her emotions on the matter. "It's not just Zuko and Iroh anymore." Her eyes turned slightly towards Naruto for a moment before turning back to the gates they were approaching. "The other target is there target. We've been ordered to work with them with them leading on the tracking part. They're also to be left alone since this is their target and not truly ours." The blond cut his eyes towards her own eyes for a split second before returning to the path ahead. "However, before we start our search, it seems I need to go back and talk with my father. He's requested my presence for something. Mai, Ty Lee, you'll be watching over Naruto and Zentrai while I'm away. I want you to make sure they stay on task and start tracking down our targets."

Naruto stuck his pinky in his ear and began differing out some dirt as he said, "Why should I babysit your two girlfriends when I could send Zentrai with you just to make sure you don't piss someone off along the way?"

Mai inhaled deeply and added, "I thought we were tracking down Zuko and Iroh. Why are we babysitting them? I can understand following them, but not babysitting them."

Naruto suddenly stopped and sighed. "She wants you to do this so she knows how we work. And the only other reason she wants you to follow us is so she knows that someone will actually take her serious when she sends us a message to meet her somewhere." Naruto stopped and stared her. The Palin King barriers stopped and she glared at them, but Naruto's presence in front of them was keeping them from moving. "Let me make it clear right now. If you're not back in one week, I'm leaving you. We'll be in a small Earth Kingdom town that's about a week from here on foot. I trust you'll be dropping us off on your way home?"

She didn't say anything. Zentrai read her thoughts and smiled. _"She'll be taking us to the town, but she's planning on making us a wait two weeks before she gets there." _Zentrai told him. Naruto had nothing to say to his friend. Zentrai knew what that meant and he knew about the town they were going to go see. _"Looks like I'll be getting to see Rehka. I hope she's still not mad at me for what happened last time I saw her." _Naruto shrugged his shoulders mentally and decided to keep his thoughts to himself.

And of course with everything now set up and the team standing before the monstrous tank like thing, Naruto was left with one final thought. "Since Azula doesn't know the name of this thing; do either of you two know the name of it? Because it would make my job a lot easier if I knew what the hell it was." Azula barred teeth and was quickly lead inside while the snickering assassins followed, followed by a laughing acrobat and a smiling brooding weapon mistress.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

Chapter 5

Naruto wasn't very happy at the moment. After being dropped off at the city, and scaring the shit out of the civilians, Naruto and Zentrai had both agreed that they needed to see their respective people for information. For Zentrai, he had to go visit some friends, one of which was a high class whore named Rehka. She would probably put him in the hospital upon seeing him since he had mistakenly tried to sleep with her daughter last time they met. For Naruto, this meant he had to talk to some of the shop owners and one very old man that was a good friend and a loving man of the game Pai Sho.

And of course the biggest problem was that Ty Lee and Mai were forced to watch them. And as a result of Naruto and Zentrai splitting up, so too did the girls. Naruto was followed around the small village by Ty Lee while Zentrai got stuck with Mai, though Naruto was one to believe and understand that shortly after they split up, Mai would have been either ditched or would run off after having him make advances towards her.

Ty Lee for the most part was very well behaved and quiet. Well Naruto knew she actually wasn't quiet. The moment they got away from Zentrai and Mai she unloaded a bunch of questions that he either answered or didn't answer. And after ten minutes, she finally shut up. But then again, Naruto did have an ability to actually ignore people, so she could have still been talking and he just wasn't aware of it.

The blond stopped at a large brick building and shoved the door open. Ty Lee quickly followed him inside, her cloak keeping her identity as a Fire Nation citizen hidden from the old man behind the counter. He wasn't aware of them yet, his old ears not quite as young as they used to be, and so he kept reading the tome in front of him until Naruto was standing directly over him. With a slow raise of his head and a toothless smile, his eyes widened slightly to the form of the elite assassin and his female companion.

"Naruto," his voice cracked. He slowly got up from his stool and walked around the counter to embrace him in a friendly hug. Naruto broke it and smile down at the old man. He was hunched over and very thin with no hair on his head and little to show on his face. His clothing was still all white, just like how Naruto remembered from their first encounter. "How have you been, young man? It's been quite awhile since I last laid eyes on you. Tell me, is Zentrai still with you?"

"He's still with me, Corde. It's good to see you're still in business." Naruto looked around and then knelt down so he was at eye level with the old man. The old man smile happily and slowly moved back behind the counter, his movements very slow. Once on the stool, Naruto stood up straight and leaned against the countertop. "I came here for some information. I was hoping you could help me out with something."

Corde stroked his thin white beard for a moment before leaning down onto the countertop as well. His hands slowly began stitching a circle into the sleek and shiny earth table he had. "What can I help you with, Naruto? You're clothes look to be in perfect shape."

"I came here for information, not a new wardrobe, Corde. I just told you that." Naruto laughed innocently.

The old man smiled once more. "Forgive me. My mind has been known to wonder since last we met, Naruto. Now, what sort of information do you need?"

As the blond leaned over to talk with Corde, Ty Lee, ever interested in the things around her, began messing with some of the statues and threads that were kept on display. She very nearly tipped over and broke an old vase that was so old; it was probably older than Corde himself. This of course got the old man's attention.

"Ty Lee," Naruto called out. She stood up straight with her hands at her side and her nose in the air. "Don't touch anything. Corde has spent years owning and making everything in this store, say for a few items. So please don't break anything."

She hastily nodded as Corde began stroking his thin beard again. When the blond turned back to the owner, his eyes narrowed. "Am I to guess that Zentrai has set you up on a blind date again?" Naruto gave the old man a quick, but hard, glance as the old man continued. "It's good to see you with someone. I was beginning to think you'd never get with anyone. I'm happy for you and the lovely young lady."

"She's not with me like that. She's my babysitter," Naruto said quickly. Corde didn't seem convinced, but Naruto didn't care. He'd already been put on the spot little over a dozen times with this man and Zentrai. There were times when he was left wondering if Corde was Zentrai's father with the way they acted around one another and how they both seemed to wanna get Naruto a girlfriend. "I need information on Iroh of the Fire Nation, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, and a bald kid with an arrow on his head."

Corde's eyes narrowed into slits upon hearing this and he quickly, in his own manner of course, rose to his feet. "With me," he ordered. Naruto began to follow when Corde stopped and turned around, a gnarled finger pointed directly into the chest of Ty Lee. "Members only," he said sharply.

"Ty Lee, you'll have to stay here while I'm gone. This won't take long. And we can't have you girls learning all of my trade secrets. That just wouldn't be right." He calmly turned back to Corde and followed him.

The young acrobat snorted and ran up to them when they turned at a corridor. She turned as well and found them to be gone, the hallway still continuing on for a good ten or fifteen feet. She blinked and then turned to face the other direction. They weren't that way either. _Where did they go?_

(-)

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief at dodging Ty Lee. A simple clone jutsu and henge and they were gone without a trace and hidden in the back part of the room where only an Earthbender could get to. In this room was five white pillows for sitting on that circled around a small fire pit. The burnt logs were proof that this place had been used a while back and the smell of smoke still wafted through the air and out the air vents.

In this room were two other people that Naruto was thankful to have at times. One of them was an old adult, probably fifty years of age, with dark tanned skin, puffy white hair, and amber eyes. He looked around wearily as if he didn't trust the walls to explode or the ground to cave in around him. He would occasionally uncork a bottle of tea or sake and drink it without regard for those around him. His nickname was Drunkard, as he was usually drunk but somehow sober during these meetings, and it was given to him by Zentrai as a joke.

The other figure was a charming young woman, one that always enjoyed flaunting her body and sleeping with everyone. Naruto liked her because she was a tease and she did always make these meetings more enjoyable with her near nonexistent choice of clothing. She had the exact appearance of Ayame, the lady who worked the Ramen stand he loved so much when he lived back home. As a result of all the names she'd been given, she kept one name just for his sake.

"Ayame, Drunkard, nice to see you two made it. I trust your journey here was easy enough?" Naruto said quietly as Corde took his spot between the two groups.

Drunkard uncorked his bottle and the air was filled with cheap sake. He downed most of it in one gulp and sloshed the rest for a moment as he said, "It could have been better." His amber eyes turned to Corde as he raised his bottle slightly. "I hope you have more sake in the back, old man. I have a feeling I'll be needing it before I leave." Corde gave a slight bow of his head and the drunk continued. "So why did you call us here? You never call us unless you need help tracking someone down. So who's the unfortunate bastard this time?" He downed the rest of his sake and slammed the bottle on the ground. He withdrew another one from inside his robes.

Ayame perked up. "Do you have someone that I have to seduce for information?" Her voice was warm, enticing, and very sexy with the way she looked at the moment. She looked like she had just finished having sex and was ready for another round with some other dude after getting barely dressed just to head out. Her tiny robes barely covered and contained her breasts and the bottom barely hid her pride and joy from between her legs.

Naruto smirked. "I doubt I'll have much need for you, Ayame. But I could be wrong. But what I need is information on three people." Drunkard groaned and unstopped the new bottle of sake and took a big swig. Ayame licked her lips as a result. Naruto sighed. "I promise this will be a big payoff if we can do this. I need you both to locate Iroh of the Fire Nation and Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. They are both wanted people and have to be protected."

The drunk took another swig before saying, "Iroh, the man that you supposedly fought and nearly bested in true combat but lost to? Are we talking about that Iroh?"

"Yes. But he's not my real target. The only reason I'm after him is because of Azula. I'm currently working with her and her two chosen teammates. I'll be working with them until I either capture my target or get fed up with her and kill her. Right now I'm leaning towards killing her, but with her seeing her father that might end up changing." The drunk groaned as he started eyeing his drink again. Ayame frowned slightly upon hearing this but allowed him to continue. "My target is a young boy with no name given. He is leading a resistance against the Fire Nation and has taken back a few villages as a result. Rumor has it that he was also there when Admiral Zhao was killed by a giant blue water creature."

"I heard that it was the Avatar that actually killed him," the drunk proclaimed through a fit of hiccups. "But then again," he started hiccupping again and then continued when he was done. "The difference between rumors and stories are blurred at the moment." He took a bigger swig and sighed. "I'll start sifting through all the rumors and stories to see what's true and what's not. You can leave your targets' location to me. I'll find him."

"It will be difficult to pinpoint General Iroh, but I will try to locate him for you." Ayame added. Naruto smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. "I trust you have a reason for wanting to find him other than just to capture him?"

"Iroh helped me understand the Fire Nation by teaching me all that he could before I was handed over to Joeng Jeong. And he helped protect me from the Fire Nation up until now. He helped me start my legacy here. Now it's time for me to help him." Ayame nodded to this and withdrew a small tube with a screw on lid. She undid it and handed it to the teen. Naruto withdrew the contents from inside and smiled. "You do know me pretty well, Ayame. I'll get to work on my message to him. Are you sure you can deliver it to me?"

"Do I have the power to bed a married man on his wedding night?"

The elite assassin smiled. "You're one very attractive woman, Ayame. It's a shame I'm not interested in you in that area. But if there's anyone that I know of that could deliver a message like this, it would be you." She smiled and began fanning her exposed chest. "Try to keep your robes on though. I doubt it will be as easy as we're making it out to be though. Drunkard, you have one week to get me as much information as you can on my target. Contact the others if you need help. I'm sure Joeng Jeong won't mind helping you out… for a price of course."

"Just give me some damn sake and we'll call it even." He grumbled. Naruto smiled again and stood up. "I'll get you what you want. But sake isn't what I'm fully intent on this time around. You have to bring me something special that I've been wanting for a long time." He paused and then withdrew a small piece of paper with a drawing on it. "There's a tome in a library in the great desert that has information on how to make a legendary tea and sake drink that I would like to have. Please bring it to me and I will consider it just payment."

"You sure are an easy man to please. I'll get it done." Naruto turned and walked out with Corde leaving and returning with the required drink for the drunken man.

(-)

Zentrai yawned as he was followed by Mai. They were walking through the market with no real destination. Or at least it seemed that way to Mai at the moment. And the part of the market they were in was one she wouldn't mind browsing in. Weapons of every kind lined either the walls of the shops or were in booths with the venders waiting patiently for a customer to come along. Most of the weapons inside the booths were very well done and crafted with elegant designs that Mai liked. She was never one to truly like fancying throwing weapons, but she had a few that were slightly larger and held decorations on them.

"You think after we see this person you're leading me to, we can came back here for a moment?" She suddenly asked. Silence greeted her. She sighed again. _Why did I get stuck with the silent one? I'm sure Ty Lee would have had a better time with this guy than I am right now. At least Naruto can talk back to me when I ask a question or two. This guy is just strange._

Though she was unaware that Zentrai could talk or read surface thoughts for that matter, when he stopped, she nearly jumped out of her skin with the way he was looking at her. She didn't back down. She held his gaze for as long as he offered it. And when he finally turned back to the path they were taking, his voice echoed into her mind. _"Whore," _he grumbled. Mai's eyes narrowed slightly. She heard a voice alright, but she didn't know where it came from. Not wanting to look like an idiot, she mentally screamed at the voice. _"Yelling won't work."_

_Now I really am hearing voices in my head. I must be as crazy as Azula then. _Her surface thoughts were caught by the telepath. Zentrai kept his thoughts and words to himself on the matter. "Where are we heading, Zentrai? Can't you at least give me a clue?" The telepath stopped again, this time in front of a door with two women up front wearing only their undergarments at the moment. She shivered slightly. She knew where they were now and she didn't like it. "You brought us to a brothel. Why would you do that?"

"All guys need some loving, girl." One of the girls said happily. Probably the same that had spoken had sauntered up to the mute and wrapped both arms around his neck and started to hang there. "You must be the legendary Zentrai Rehka has told us about? I'm her younger sister. Are you really that skilled with your tongue as she says you are?" The mute smiled and broke free of her hold. He walked through the door, prompting Mai to follow. She was stopped by the same girl. "Only guys are allowed in here unless you wanna work for us." Said girl began eyeing the brooding weapon mistress.

"I'll stay out here then." She offered while walking over to a small bench. Sitting down, she huffed and wished she wasn't wearing this tattered cloak. Surely if she showed these people she was Fire Nation she'd get whatever she wanted… or she'd be dead on the spot.

(-)

"Zentrai," a slightly older woman greeted. She embraced the mute in her a hug, pressing her big breasts into his chest.

Were it not for the fact that he came here for information he might have enjoyed himself. But there were a few reasons why he went rigged when she hugged him. The first was that this was Rehka, the mother of the woman he tried to knock up last time he was here. She tried to kill him with a large stick she called the Judgment Rod. She used JR as a way to beat off men that either didn't pay or insulted her ladies. The second reason was because she had the power over all the girls in this establishment. She was what they all called their mother. And she was a mother hen. No one messed with her babies.

Breaking free of the embrace, he looked her over with a smile. She still wore the same white and blue robes like she always did. There was no need for makeup, as she was very pretty even without it. Her eyes were a deep amethyst color, and worked against her dark tanned skin and dark black hair. Her body was still as slim as it was in the old days and her figure still had all the guys watering and wishing to be with her.

As she looked him over, her smile twisted slightly and Zentrai had mere seconds to prepare for what was coming. The Judgment Rod was pulled off her back and slammed into the side of his head. He dropped like a rock. He wasn't unconscious, but he was pretty close. Despite her delicate appearance, Rehka was strong. Very strong actually. She once beat up every man in this place when they started harassing her girls and as a result, become someone that all the guys feared but wanted to sleep with.

Getting back up and rubbing the side of his head, she put the weapon away and helped to his feet. _"I suppose I deserved that."_

"You deserve more than a simple strike to the head." She explained. He chuckled lightly while still rubbing the side of his head. "I suppose you need my help with something. As usual, it's going to cost you. The only difference is that this time I'll let you pick a girl to have fun with tonight." His eyes brightened slightly and she scowled at him. "Men are so disgusting."

"And yet you work for them by pleasuring them, mother." The girls all sang out. Rehka started giggling and the girls soon followed suit. It was at this time that one of the girls, a cute little redhead, approached the mute and wrapped her arms around him. "Mommy, I'll take him on." She cooed. Zentrai smiled and wrapped an arm around the girl. Rehka had nothing against this and merely turned away, motioning for both to follow.

He was lead to a back room that was pampered for all the needs of a woman. Everything was painted pink. The bed was large with pink sheets and pink pillows. The nightstand was painted pink with a pink lipstick and nail polish, along with makeup. The combs were pink. The walls were pink. And the floor was also a pink carpet with a light pink rug. Zentrai arched a brow, remembering that the last time he came to this room it was sky blue instead.

Rehka took her spot in a large chair while Zentrai and the girl took up the bed. She started toying with his chest for the fun of it. "So where do we begin?" Rehka asked. If she was put off by her girls' attempts to undress the teen, she didn't show it.

"_We're hunting down two traitors, one of which you know quite well and the other that you've probably only heard of." _She breathed deeply while lighting some incents for them. _"Iroh of the Fire Nation and Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation have been deemed traitors by the Fire Lord and are to be killed on sight. I'd like to help me find them if at all possible." _

"Ayame is currently speaking with Naruto on this. I'm sure he'll have her find him for you. And since you're here and clearly not interested at the moment," she made sure to eye him upon saying that. "Why are you here?"

"_We have a third target." _Her eyes narrowed into slits and the girl finally got his shirt off. Undressing him was a hassle all on its own. He wore dozens of layers of clothing with more weapons under each layer. When she got the shirt off, she was greeted by the sight of a dozen knives, daggers, throwing stars, and various other weapons that were kept in play by pieces of leather that clipped on to them. She easily removed the strap on the back to let them fall to the floor as he continued. _"Naruto is uncertain of it and wants conformation, but I believe our target might be the Avatar."_

Rehka didn't hide her curiosity well from anyone. Though she was mentally disciplined to show no emotions and hide her surface thoughts from view, she was still easily provoked when something that interested her became the subject at hand. "Go on."

"_Omashu has fallen and King Bumi has been taken prisoner. Our target has two friends that ventured into the city, rescuing everyone by the means of a fake plague. Naruto and I watched out target do feats only the Avatar could have done. Though we were far away, I'm pretty certain I saw him Airbending."_

"Can you be certain?" He shrugged his shoulders as the teen managed to remove another layer of clothing and another layer of weapons before reaching his bare chest. "It is possible that your target is the Avatar, but as of late there have been more sightings of the Avatar in random parts of the world. Most of these sightings were imposters and were either killed by Fire Nation soldiers or captured. If your target is a fake Avatar, than it can mean that either someone is pretending to be him and getting an army to follow him or it's the real deal."

"_I think it might be the real Avatar, but I can't be certain. We have no way of knowing unless I can read his surface thoughts or see him Airbending. Naruto doesn't know what Airbending looks like, but I do thanks to Bumi. Bumi let me read his mind from a time when he was younger and was friends with an Airbender. I know what it looks like."_

"Show me what you saw," she ordered. Zentrai stood up, making the teen whimper as he moved to Rehka. He placed both hands on the side of her head and closed his eyes. She did the same and the fight from his point of view was shown. Once it was over, she shook her head. "You were too far away for me to tell what that was. It looked like advanced Metalbending, but there is no way to be certain of such a thing. Airbending seems more likely, but I'd like a better look before I guarantee anything."

She stood up and the girl cocked her head to the side while wrapping her arms around Zentrai's bare chest. "Can I still play with him?"

"What he asks for is within reason. I will help you search for this target. I'll contact my other girls and see if they can help you out. In exchange, you are to pay the usual fee for such a thing." Her smile came back. "And yes you may play with him. But make sure he doesn't get too much pleasure out of it." Her eyes sparkled with excitement and she hastily threw the teen back onto the bed. "You may scream all you like, Zentrai. No one will disturb you."

(-)

Azula was to meet with her father and there would be no delaying this in anyway. Anyone that would dare interrupt her or try to speak with her at the moment would either be shot full of lightning or crippled with the things on her mind. Her father came first and foremost at the moment. And not even Li or Lo would stop her.

She marched through the doors that were already opened by two guards, both of which gave her odd glances from behind the scary masks they wore. When she entered, they shut the grand door and waited for the signal to open it again.

Azula marched up to her father, knelled before him, and dared not raise her head until spoken to. It was a great moment for her now. She'd finally get things straightened out so she could command the squad, not Naruto or Zentrai. She would lead them to victory. She alone would guarantee their success.

"Azula," he called out to her in his usual voice. She looked up and found him standing up from his throne. "I have heard that you've been fighting with Naruto. Why have you done this?"

"He refuses to listen to my orders or get along…"

The flames shot straight up as he growled, cutting her off. Her eyes were wide in shock now. Ozai never got angry with her about anything. She was his little girl, his little fire monster as some people called. He never once spoke out against her nor tried to discipline her when she did something wrong to Zuko after their mother vanished. And now he was angry with her.

"Azula, am I to understand that you instigated these fights?"

"You see…"

"Did you start these fights?" She gulped as the flames thickened and the air heated. She nodded her head dumbly and fearfully. Ozai took a deep breath and the flames soothed down to normal levels. "I gave him command of the operation because I want him to join our ranks, Azula. Fighting with him isn't a very good political idea." Her mouth began to open but she hastily shut it. He hadn't given her permission to speak yet. "I want him to join our ranks because he is powerful. He is not like any other warrior I've ever seen or heard of. And there is a good reason for why I want him to join."

He paused and she took the invite. "Why is that, father?" She felt like a kid back at the Fire Academy for girls again. Her teachers had always demanded a strict set of rules that everyone must follow. She had been no exception. Royal blood or not, rules were meant to be followed, and the teacher she had could put the fear of all the spirits into you. Anyone who dared questioned her would be horribly punished.

Ozai's smile wasn't seen from behind the wall of flames, but she felt it. She felt his joy at the moment and it unnerved her. "I want him to join our ranks because of what he's accomplished as a warrior, not as an assassin." She bowed her head as he took his throne again. Something was terribly off and she knew it. "The reason I want him to join is because he beat my older brother, Iroh, in combat." Her head snapped up for a moment in shock before she put it down again.

Everyone knew about his great defeat at the walls of Ba Sing Se. There wasn't a person alive that didn't know about it. Iroh was called the Dragon of the West because he beat the last great dragon, earning him the honorary title, Dragon. As a military leader he was superb. No one was a better tactician than him. No one could stand before his might in battle as he led campaign after campaign and drove their enemies into the ground. His power, his fame, was legendary and toppled over everyone else.

But that had been his only major defeat after he became the great Dragon of the West. Since he became the Dragon of the West, no one had bested him at anything… not even tea making. But for someone to beat him, and have it be unknown to the world, was just strange. And the fact that it was Naruto who did it was amazing.

Ozai continued. "My brother explained to me that his power was greater than anything he had ever fought against. He fought him alone for two hours without rest. They were both at their strongest, or so Iroh had believed. Naruto possess a power that Iroh could only believe to come from the Spirit of Fire. His aura absorbed fire attacks, rending his bending useless. His strength was unmatched by Iroh. His speed could hardly be followed. And his power was overwhelming."

Azula tried to picture this. Speed that couldn't be followed. Strength that was unmatched by all. And a power so primal, so revered that it could only came from the Spirit of Fire seemed so strange and yet so believable that she couldn't fully picture it all. She was never one to believe in the rumors or stories people told her about demons, but maybe he was a demon or a spirit. How else could one explain his legendary status to the world? He had accomplished so much in such a little amount of time and he did it under the noses of almost everyone.

Ozai continued. "My brother, however, didn't lose this fight. He declared it a loss because the boy was able to do best him in pure fighting power. But he won because the boy lacked a military set mind. Iroh's mindset let him win against such a powerful teen because he wasn't properly trained. But he calls it a loss because the kid was able to do so much with very little. He claimed that the boy had a limit to this power though. Fifteen minutes is the longest he can hold it. But Iroh believes he could do more with it."

"How so, father?" She began to feel her knees shaking. She wasn't frightened by any of this. No. She was shaking because she wanted to see this power with her own eyes. She wanted to command it. She wanted to see it for all its glory and make it her own. If he were to join, she'd make him hers just for this power only.

Ozai's smile was now visible to her. "Because the boy could still stand and fight with such ferocity that it scared him. Iroh had run away from the fight because more and more people showed up to help him. A band of mercenaries or assassins had come to the boy to aid him. They aided him and helped drive Iroh away. Iroh returned home shortly after the fight and explained the boy to me. Had it not been for the damage that boy has done to our forces; I would not have believed him. He is more powerful than anything I could ever imagine."

"And you want me to make him join us?" A sly smile graced her lips. She could think of a few ways to make it work. But she knew those ways wouldn't work. Threatening him with death or capturing a friend wouldn't work here. She'd have to make him join on his own. She'd have to do something she never thought she'd have to do: Follow his orders and be his lapdog.

"Yes." Ozai returned to his throne and smiled briskly. "His target is the Avatar. If he can take him down, killing or otherwise, he will be welcomed to our ranks as a member of our family."

"And what if I can't make him join?" She liked this idea even more than she dared express.

"You are to kill him without hesitation." He raised one hand and the flames increased. "Go now and bring Uzumaki Naruto into our ranks or bring his head. I will not have him be a threat to us. And you had best not fail, or I will kill you myself." Azula stood up, turned, and walked off, leaving her father behind to consider what he could do with Naruto and where he'd send him first if he got him into his ranks and a sly grin.

(-)

When Naruto found Ty Lee, he wasn't surprised to see her messing with everything in the store. She had somehow managed to balance all the big objects on very small objects and was standing at the very top of the pile on one finger while doing the splits. She looked pleased with herself when they entered. Corde nearly keeled over from seeing such a thing. It wasn't the fact that her cloak was gone, showing that she was Fire Nation or that her skirt and flipped up and that her pants lined her ass cheeks well, but the fact that she was doing all of this on her mother's ancestral urn which held her remains.

Naruto put both arms on his hips and looked at her. She was smiling proudly. "Get down." Naruto snapped suddenly. She jumped off and landed on her feet, the pile of stuff staying perfectly still somehow. He landing was excellent and her gaze turned to one of hope as he continued to stare at her. Closing his eyes and messaging his nose, he said, "Why did you do this? I told you not to touch anything or mess with anything. And yet you do this," as he motioned to the stacked objects. She smiled innocently. "Get it put up and put your cloak back on. Do you want to die a horrible death in this dusty village?"

"No."

"Then do as I say. Please?"

The young acrobat quickly began putting everything up while Corde spoke with Naruto. "She's Fire Nation," he said somberly. Naruto nodded as Corde started watching her put stuff back where it belonged. He stroked his thin beard thoughtfully for a moment before continuing. "Do you intend to work her into your group or our organization?" He whispered that.

"It's a mission I'm on. She's part of a Fire Nation team I'm stuck babysitting until Azula comes back. I've ordered her to leave this village alone, but I can't guarantee that she'll listen." The blond paused and watched her set a dragon and tiger statue back in place. "She is very sorry for what's happening in the world though. That much I am certain on. She doesn't hate her nation, but she does… regret what's happening to the other nations at the moment."

"Such is a good thing. Now please get her out of my store. I don't want anything to be broken." The blond chuckled and helped Ty Lee put the rest of the stuff up. After putting it up they left.

Ty Lee followed Naruto without question, but she did try speaking with him. "Where did you go?"

Naruto slowed down a little bit so she could easily keep up. She seemed hesitant to walk beside him, but after a while she was right by his side. Once she was at his side, Naruto answered. "I went to a special room where only members are allowed."

"Okay. But why didn't you just tell me that in the beginning?"

"I did." He answered sharply now. She shivered in fright and continued to follow him in step. "What I'm curious about is why you can't seem to follow orders but were hand selected by Azula. Do you have a history with that woman?"

"Azula and I, along with Mai and Zuko, grew up together as childhood friends. We went to the same academy together and instantly bounded. We used to laugh and have fun back then… but now looking back on it I kind of regret some of the things we did. It wasn't very nice. We pranked Mai once since we learned then that she had a crush on Zuko. Azula put an apple on her head and set it on fire while she was standing next to a fountain. Zuko ran up and accidently pushed her into the water as a result."

"Azula is an evil person. She treats people like toys. She uses them when she needs to and forgets them when they are no use to her. That's how she thinks. She's only using us because of her father at the moment. And she's only using you two because of your skills. Were it up to me, I would have had you stay with the circus where we found you. I wouldn't have brought either of you with us." Rai suddenly growled and Naruto was forced to snort. "I guess you're hungry?" Rai opened his mouth as if to yawn and Naruto laughed. "Let's find our old stopping grounds and get something from Lei. She's an excellent cook when she's not drunk."

(-)

Mai continued to twirl her weapon around and around on her finger as she tried to stave off her boredom with no luck in sight. She watched as man after man entered the establishment, some of which were looking at her with hungering eyes. She was lucky Shibaru was with her at the moment or they might have made a pass at her. Lucky for her she had a giant beast that was eating what was probably a human arm or an animal arm at the moment.

She yawned and glared at the door. _How much longer is he gonna take? _She stopped twirling the weapon and pulled out another. _Might as well try to entertain myself. _She started twirling two of them on different fingers.

(-)

Ty Lee smiled happily at the gourmet of food that the cook had provided for them. As soon as Corde knew that she was Fire Nation, everyone in the village seemed to know what she was. No one cared about it either. It was if seeing her were a normal thing for them and they just moved about their daily lives as though nothing was wrong with the world. She was put off by this when it was revealed to be common knowledge about her, but after a while, she started to enjoy it.

That of course didn't stop her from asking question after question about the village they were in. "So how do you know about this place?" She asked between her bites of food. She wasn't sure what she was eating, it looked like some sort of meat, but she wasn't very certain. It was good though.

Naruto set his chopsticks down and took a deep breath. "I was sort of raised here," he answered. She smiled as a result. "I spent three years living in this small village and have made it my home. The villagers were a little terrified by me, but after seeing what I could do and what I had done for their village, they came to respect me. I have a home here, but I haven't used it in a while. I'm pretty Zentrai's using it at the moment."

At the mention of Zentrai, she frowned and scrunched her nose. "He's sort of… strange. Has he always been the way he is?"

"No. Before Zentrai and I became friends, he was very quiet and kept to himself most of the time. He was born an orphan. His mother was a prostitute and as a result he never knew his father. His mother died two years after he was born so he doesn't have many memories about her. His mother figure is the woman he went to see. Her name is Rehka and she's my mother figure as well since I too grew up as an orphan."

"Were you an orphan because of the war?" Her hands trembled slightly at the idea of that. She'd seen a lot of people already orphaned by the war through her travels with the circus. And here was a man who had bested almost everyone in combat that she knew of and yet was probably orphaned by them. If he held a grudge against them, why was he working for them?

Naruto thankfully shook his head, dispelling her belief that it was the Fire Nation's fault. "No…" he drawled out. "I was orphaned at birth because of an attack on my village by an evil spirit… if I wanted to call it anything. It attacked my village the day I was born and my father gave his life to stop the creature. As a result he was seen as a God to my people and I, his son, was tarnished for my powers which resembled the power of the evil spirit. I lost my father's name, his power, his honor, his glory… everything that was his and would have been mine was stripped away from me. But I think it was a good thing."

"Why?" She sucked down some tea and noted that it wasn't as good as Iroh's. She remembered his tea very well. You never forget good tea.

Naruto inhaled the scent of lilies, a decoration that lined the entire restaurant. "Power does strange things to people. I've been there. I've been there and back and it's not very pleasant. With all the power my father had, I could have guaranteed my ascension to power and ruled over the village. I'm not sure what sort of leader I would have been. Back then I was an idiot and never thought things through. I still don't. Back then I also never took things serious until it mattered. I could have been a powerful person back then, but I spent my time doing pranks just for attention. I felt empty inside because I never had any friends and the only looks I ever got were glares and heated words. I was shunned by my village."

"That's awful. How could they do that to you?"

"It's only human nature to fear what they don't understand. I personally don't care anymore. I stopped carrying about what other people thought of me and just stopped being what I was back then. Back then, I might have pranked Azula till she either killed herself or found and killed me." He chuckled inwardly and she giggled a moment later. The idea of pranking Azula was an amusing thought. "I admit that part of me would and probably will prank Azula later, but she's doing a fine job on her own right now."

"I can tell. She's a little heated around you. I suppose it's because you two were fighting most of the time that I thought you two were actually dating. I was happy for Azula to find someone until I learned that you weren't dating. She really does need someone. It's sad to know she doesn't have anyone to love her romantically."

"Some people are best left alone in that area." Naruto offered her after taking a drink of his tea. "When I was young, I never had anyone but my teachers and our village leader as precious people. When our village was attacked, I remembering hearing someone shout that they loved me. But after that my memory starts to fade in and out between then and now." He stared down into his tea cup and watched the liquid swirl. The bottom of the cup was white and there were multiple rings where the maker had either messed up or had decided to put strange designs into the cup. He finished the drink and looked away. "I lost what remained of my family back then. I don't know what happened to them. Maybe I died and was reborn. Or maybe they died while I slept through the night. I don't know. I just know they're gone and nothing I do will change that."

"I'm so sorry to hear that. I must have been hard for you to have lost so many people all at once."

"It was hard. But I got over it. Time can heal most wounds. But some of the deepest wounds are created through loss. I lost everyone once. I vowed I wouldn't let that happen again. So when I awoke in Bumi's care, I made a vow to become strong and protect everyone that I could. I would protect whatever family I acquired here and would live happily with them." The blond closed his eyes for a brief moment before the nuzzling nose of Rai got his attention. He chuckled and ruffled his head, careful once more to miss his ears and horn. "I guess you'll inherit my legacy, Rai… since you're my adopted son and all."

Rai's reply was to open his mouth and hang his tongue out, his way of saying thanks. Ty Lee giggled at the antics of the large beast and watched him roll over onto his back, legs spread and scratching his back on the floor. "Do you really view your pets that way? I thought most people thought I was crazy for doing that to my pet."

"Bumi once told me that animals can think for themselves, but even they need help from time to time. And with the way we had to raise Rai and Shibaru, they've sort of become like adopted kids to us. Well to me anyways. I don't know about Zentrai." Naruto tossed Rai a chunk of meat and watched him wolf it down with utter delight. "We should head out and search for Zentrai and Mai. Chances are he's done with what he set out to do and is now just having fun." Ty Lee nodded vigorously and jumped to her feet.

(-)

By the time Naruto and Ty Lee made it to the brothel, things were a little strange. For one, Mai was actually staring at the door with her jaw handing and three thin blades ready in her hands in case of something bad happening. The other thing were the strange noises that were coming from inside. It sounded like a fight had broken out. A really big fight, actually. And the final thing to make them worry was that Shibaru was walking out covered in blood and holding a human limb.

"What the hell happened?" Naruto asked as he crossed his arms. Mai pointed at the door as a large man was thrown out and landed face first on the ground. He moaned and groaned; his fat ass exposed to the world around him. The blond stared at the man for a moment before another man was thrown out, followed quickly by another. The three men slumped over one another in a heap of bodies and passed out. "What'd we miss?"

"Some drunks walked in there a little while ago and then all I heard was yelling." Mai explained. Another man was thrown out, this time with a woman following after him, a large stick in hand.

"Rehka," Naruto whispered in awe and fear. The woman turned and readied to strike the teen before realizing who it was. She lowered the weapon and then swung gut level, colliding with a flying man that went out the door and was stopped cold at her feet. Naruto shook his head. "Why must the drunks always start fights in here? Why can't they start them somewhere else… like in another village?"

A fat man was thrown out the window and Rehka growled before screaming, "Don't throw these fat drunk bastards out the windows! That costs us money! Throw them through the doors or in the trash!" Two men came out with Zentrai, completely naked at the moment, punching and kneeing the two men in the balls as hard as he could. They dropped like rocks and Zentrai stood up without any sign of remorse for the two teen's virgin eyes.

"_Rehka, why in the hell did you let fifteen drunk Earth Kingdom soldiers into this place?" _His mental scream touched the minds of everyone right there. Mai, now convinced that it was in fact Zentrai's voice she had been hearing, walked up to him and slapped him across the face. _"Why did she hit me? What did I do?"_

Naruto started laughing. "I don't know how you're doing what you do. But that's for looking at my ass." Mai announced. Zentrai blinked for a moment, and then, as if a light bulb had gone off in his brain, started grinning. "Keep smirking. I've got lots of sharp little toys." She snapped while raising her weapons. Zentrai snatched them from her and went back into the brothel to finish the fight. Mai shivered, her brain now registering that he was both naked, and had just touched her with a wet hand. "I don't even wanna know what he's been doing."

"Get your Fire Nation ass in here and help me throw these fat bastards out before they rape my children!" Rehka stormed into the brothel with Naruto following right behind her. Ty Lee ran in as well with Mai being dragged along. When they got inside, it was already showing to be pure chaos. Girls were either pinned to the walls, being dragged off for sex, or in one girls' case, about to get raped on the couch.

Rehka stormed up to him, grabbed her trusty weapon with both hands, and swung for his head. The blow struck, and a loud thwack echoed throughout the establishment. This got everyone's attention, and it only got worse when Naruto started bashing heads together. And with half of the girls aiding in this little moment, it was no wonder why some of the men started running away crying, either half dressed or completely naked.

Mai didn't actually know where to being. She just started throwing her weapons and pinning what men she could to the wall. Zentrai, Naruto, or Rehka simply walked up to these people and cold cocked them across the face. And with Ty Lee, she blocked their Chi and disabled their limbs, keeping them from either fighting back or simply moving. It was entertaining to what few girls that watched from the sidelines to see their mother figure, the two Assassin Brothers, and two Fire Nation females cleaning house. And when the last man was thrown, the smallest of the girls ran out with a battle of sake and slammed it over one of the men's head, knocking him out and just in time to get arrested by the local Earthbending forces that provided peace for the village.

And now that the place had quieted down, Zentrai took this moment to stretch, scratch his ass, and then proceed into the back, leaving Mai and Ty Lee staring at the red marks on his ass. Ty Lee wasn't able to shield her thoughts, and this prompted Zentrai to say, _"There's a girl with a whip in the room I was in before the fight broke out. I'm going back to take it from her and use it on her since she's been hitting me with it for the last two hours while we had sex." _

"And you're going back to that because…" Naruto asked humorously, leaving his friend to continued.

"_I'm going back to it, because she has a hot body. Mother, thank you for letting me sleep with one of your girls tonight. And you should know we're going to be here for a week. So will it be okay for me to stay in the back with her until the other member of our team shows up?" _Rehka nodded and he smiled. _"You're the best, Mother. Thanks!" _Zentrai ran in the back room where the girl he was with squealed in delight before the sound of whipping could be heard.

"That is so wrong." Naruto grumbled.

"Amy is into rough sex. We can't seem to figure out why." Rehka was tapping Judgment Rod on her shoulder as she said this. Mai gave it one glance and figured out why it might be. Shrugging her shoulders, she turned to Naruto, embraced him in a hug, and smiled. "It's so good to see you again, Naruto. I trust my adopted son has been acting politely while you're on missions?"

"Does starring at a girls ass count as good behavior?" The brothel owner smiled and giggled while shaking her head. "Then I suppose he hasn't. I guess you'll just have to discipline him before we leave."

"I suppose we will. Isn't that right, girls!"

"Yes, Mother!" They all chimed. All the girls started giggling as a result and some began brainstorming ideas on what to do to him.

The blond assassin shook his head. "We'll be here for a week. Do you mind putting us up for a little bit. We have to wait for my client's daughter to arrive. And don't worry. If she even thinks about burning this village down, my foot will go into her ass. I'd kill her, but we actually do need her until we can figure out just where our target is. Until we figure it out on our own, we're stuck with her. And she has the fastest means of travel at the moment."

"I understand. And I suppose I can help you. But it's going to cost you." Naruto withdrew a sack and handed it over to her. She took it and checked the contents before smiling. "I suppose this will work. I was hoping for something else, but this always works just as well." Naruto blushed. "Still waiting to find that special someone are we? I must say, you are the strangest man I've ever met. And I've met some strange men in my life. Tenka," she called while snapping her fingers. A small girl, probably no older than twelve appeared. "See them to the reserved chambers and make sure they are well taken care of. See to any new clothes they need and provide them with something new while they're in our fare village. Just because our protectors our here doesn't mean they will be accepted like that."

"Yes, Mother." Tenka bowed and showed the three to their room while another girl brought out some food for the two beasts.

**One Week Later**

Azula was horrified by the sight she was greeted to. It was one thing to find two women ready to escort her into the village, and another to know that she was being ordered by Naruto to wear a cloak over her clothing or change to peasant clothing. She opted for the cloak, which looked more like a bunch of rags stitched together than a sheet or blanket like she had always imagined them to be. Of course she was also forced to leave behind her guards, which she cared nothing for at the moment, she was a little hesitant to walk into a village in rags without her guards. She felt naked honestly.

And the other thing that actually horrified her was the sight that greeted her upon entering the establishment. Ty Lee was walking around on her hands on a table and singing in the process. She was happy and had four other girls around her all signing with her and acting strange. They seemed overjoyed by the fact that she was Fire Nation. Naruto was off to the side, one girl under his arm and another in his lap demanding some of his stories from the last set of missions he'd taken. Mai was off at a table with another girl, twirling five of her knives on each hand, one on each finger. Rai and Shibaru were being pampered and being handled by a few girls that giggled and pet them when they could. And Zentrai was strapped to a wall naked with all the other girls, minus a slightly older female that was constantly being called mother that was watching it all with an evil glint in her eyes.

Oh and there was the fact that this place was a brothel.

"AZULA," Ty Lee greeted in her hyperactive voice. She blurred straight up to Azula, her form completely twitchy. "HI!" She yelled. Azula recoiled and blanched at Ty Lee's powerful yell. It knocked her hair back and her hood down. Blinking at the hyperactive girl, she narrowed her eyes and Ty Lee presented a drink. "THIS STUFF IS REALLY GOOD! YOU SHOULD HAVE SOME!"

Azula looked past the screaming acrobat and glared at Naruto. "What did you do to her?" She tried to sound nice, but her grinding voice made it clear she was angry with all of them at the moment.

Naruto smiled innocently. "We gave her some tea and she got like this. She's hasn't slept in two days." He started laughing as Mai and the other girl started throwing knives at the ceiling. "I think Mai's drunk with Amy, but I could be wrong. Zentrai is being punished for what he's done while he was gone from here. And I'm just chilling." He leaned back into the couch and continued his tale with the two girls.

Azula blanched and starred at the group. _"AZULA," _a mental scream echoed into her mind. She dropped to one knee and began blinking tears out of her eyes. _"Hello. My name is Zentrai. I'm a sexy man whore. Love me!" _Laughter erupted in her mind as the whole place went silent. And then as one they erupted into laughter with the mental voice. After listening to everyone's laughter, Ty Lee's screaming voice, and Naruto's war stories, she was quickly walking back outside and listening to the silence that followed in her actions. And then as one, everyone erupted into laughter again. _"She wants me!" _

"Good luck with that!" Everyone screamed.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin_03 and TheHumanWiki

Chapter 6

Azula was on her best behavior now. She would do everything in her power to get Naruto to join the Fire Nation. So far things were going smoothly. They hadn't had any fights since she had come back and screamed at them about what they did to Ty Lee and Mai, along with the fact that the meeting place was a brothel. She had tried to seduce him, but after two failures and a bunch of giggles from Ty Lee, she opted for a different approach. One that wouldn't have her seducing him, but rather, befriending him. She was putting up with all of his orders now and wasn't complaining when he shot down two or three of her ideas on where to go and what to do for information.

And with the knowledge of Zentrai being able to speak with his mind, she realized that thinking was a really bad idea. When it was revealed that he spoke by reading minds, she quickly began trying not to think at all. But she failed horribly in the beginning. He was reading her thoughts like mad and laughing half of the time. Most of her thoughts were ways she could try to seduce Naruto, all of which got laughs from the telepath. Now that she was able to not think, she was actually enjoying watching him mentally kick himself when they played cards, which is what they were doing at the moment.

Naruto laid his cards down and took the pot with a royal flush. "I win… again."

"You're cheating," Mai accused. Naruto arched a brow. "Somehow," she added hesitantly.

Ty Lee looked at her cards and then frowned. "How could he be cheating, Mai? If anyone's cheating, it's Zentrai." She said simply. The mind reader was reading their minds when they picked up their cards, learning what they had and what they wanted to get. If a hand wasn't going his way, he simply folded. And like with what Naruto had just done, he folded. The young acrobat gave the telepath a sharp glare. "Would you please stop cheating? It's hard to enjoy this game if you're doing that."

"He's not cheating," Naruto said quickly. "If you keep your minds clear, he can't figure out what you have. But, he is an excellent card counter. But that's illegal and we're mercenaries so the rules don't apply here." Naruto took the cards and began shuffling them.

"So where are we heading?" Azula asked. She leaned back against the soft chair she was using. It was really comfortable.

Naruto continued shuffling while Zentrai spoke to them. _"We're heading to a small village that's a days' journey from the village we were just in. in this thing we should be there in a matter of hours." _Naruto started passing out the cards as everyone put in their gold or silver pieces. _"One of our contacts confirmed that our target was recently seen leaving this village and it's our best and only lead at the moment. We're going to go there and try to figure out where he might have gone. If it turns out to be a dead lead, we'll simply leave and start searching for Iroh and Zuko."_

The team picked up their cards and Naruto was quick to finish the conversation. "This place we're going to is known for its underground Earthbending Wrestling tournaments. Our contact confirmed that our target actually beat their current champion, the Blind Bandit, and left with the same person. The Blind Bandit is a girl and is believed to be an Earthbending Prodigy because she's blind." Mai arched a brow upon hearing this but said nothing as she looked her cards over. Naruto took a deep breath as he put two cards down. "I'll take two." He informed the others.

Azula sat her hand down and shook her head. "I fold." Ty Lee did the same while Mai and Zentrai both took three cards. The Fire Princess looked at them funny before saying, "So they have an Earthbending Prodigy that's blind and is a girl? Why would they want a blind warrior rather than one that can see?"

Naruto smirked slightly. "Never underestimate a blind person, Azula. Just because someone is blind doesn't mean they're useless. I've dealt with a few people that were blind, and I gotta tell you… they are a pain in the ass to fight." Naruto looked at his new cards. Two Kings, two Queens, and one Ace. He closed his slightly and looked at Mai and Zentrai. "I once had a friend that couldn't do anything but Taijutsu. He would be a bit like the people who can't bend the elements, and we were always taking missions against people who could do that. Because of his disability, he was regarded as a failure. Well that failure actually happened to be our best Taijutsu fighter, surpassed only by his teacher. He was just as fast as me and faster when he wanted to be. He was far stronger than me as well. So it's not impossible for someone that has a disability to do amazing things."

"That doesn't really form a connection to the two." Mai pointed out. "But I get your point." She adjusted her cards and threw two gold pieces into the already growing pot. "So you think this blind person could actually be a dangerous fighter?"

"I've seen an Earthbender that could kick major ass with just one arm and an old man that was deaf, yet could still _hear_ if one wanted to try and say it was anything special. And besides, Zentrai is a telepath that can't speak. The fact that he can do what he does is an amazing thing all on its own. Cursed with the inability to speak; his people fought and found a way to speak again with their voices." Naruto shifted slightly and threw plus five gold pieces and started adjusting his cards again.

Azula tried to understand what he was doing. In the few games they had played already, she was starting to see a pattern when dealing with the group and during the game. Naruto, when he had a good hand, would wiggle around a bit. When he had a slightly good hand, he'd cock his head to one side or the other. And when he wasn't sure, he'd do a combination of both while adjusting his cards. This all meant that he didn't have a good hand at the moment.

For Mai it was a bit different. Mai would squint with one eye and adjust her cards if she had a good hand. If she had a slightly good hand, she'd inhale softly, far too low for almost anyone to hear, but it was easy to see. When she wasn't certain, she bit into her lower lip for a split second. She'd actually squinted one eye, but it was actually directed at Naruto, not the cards. So Azula had no idea on what she had.

Ty Lee was actually a strange story. She was unreadable because she did something different each time she got a hand. And there was no pattern to it either.

As for Zentrai, he was passive and unreadable. This was probably due to his years of mental discipline in the art of shielding his own thoughts from others so no one could _hear_ what he was saying. His face was a mask like a stone statue, unmoving and unreadable. His breathing remained the same. His eyes remained focused on his cards. And he never flinched. It was just odd to see how these three played such a game and that she knew what these four could do.

But, since she didn't have a second party that she knew of watching her actions when she got a good hand, a slightly good hand, or a crappy hand, she had no idea on what her calling signs were. Naruto and Zentrai probably had already picked up on them. Zentrai, if she were to bet money on it, would be the first with his telepathy. She'd spent the first part of the game actually thinking about her cards and what to go for.

Ty Lee picked up where Mai left off by saying, "How can someone that's deaf still hear things if he's deaf? That doesn't make sense."

Naruto bit his lower lip and leaned back into his chair. Zentrai rolled his eyes and folded his cards together while doing the same. Mai didn't get the message and remained as she was while Naruto said, "I actually don't fully understand it either. It might be that he can sense vibrations in the air that he was able to "hear" me without actually "hearing" me if you get what I mean." Mai looked to Zentrai for a moment and then shrugged. "But I suppose everyone has unique abilities in this world if you put your mind to working hard." He sat his cards down. "Two pair, Ace high." He said simply. Zentrai threw his cards at the pot while Mai looked down at her own.

She slowly sat the cards down, revealing the same thing, but instead of Queens, she had Aces. "I win that one." She collected her winnings and smiled happily for a brief moment. She had enough money back home to make this seem like mere pocket change. But of course she won it fair and square, so there was a reason for her to smile. "Now we should move on to the crowned jewel." She gave Zentrai a warning glare as the boy began to get out of his chair. "Put it down on the pot and we'll start this little game."

"_Poker won't be enough for this." _He pulled out a long golden handle with a ruby blade. It was a three pronged blade, each blade being the same as the middle one, red as a ruby. It was a throwing knife much like Mai's golden one she tried to use on the Waterbender she fought back at Omashu. Though she didn't get a chance to use it, this new one was a rather good looking one and she did want it. But so did Zentrai and the two had squabbled over it before coming to the idea of a friendly game of poker to see who could win the thing. Of course since Mai said it needed to be resolved and that she'd leave it up to Zentrai; she had no idea on just what he was planning.

"So what sort of game are we playing this time?" Ty Lee asked innocently.

"_Strip Poker," _Zentrai said briskly. Naruto groaned from the way his voice sounded. Normally his voice was cheerful, full of happiness and that outgoing sort of tone that made him wonder if he was a relative to Ty Lee with their hyperactive moments. But now his voice was cold, detached, and very protective of the weapon. _"We play until there is only one person with clothes left on. If you wanna back out now, you can do so. Otherwise you will stay in this match until it's over. Do I make myself clear?"_

Naruto and Azula quickly stood up. "I'm not playing this stupid game." Naruto snapped. Azula kept her thoughts to herself, until Zentrai read them which caused the telepath to smirk a bit. The blue eyed assassin turned his gaze quickly to Ty Lee and he bit his lower lip. Zentrai wasn't fully able to control the will of others with his powers, but he had enough of a grasp on how to actually whisper thoughts or ideas into their minds to make them do his bidding from time to time. But this wasn't what unsettled him at the moment. "Ty Lee, back out now. You don't need to be a part of this."

A one way conversation was quickly started between Naruto and Zentrai for his words. _"You have feelings for her? Or is that you don't think she fully understands the meaning of this game?" _

"_I think she understands. But I don't think she has enough clothes, skills, or luck to win and because she doesn't find loopholes like you do." _The blond collected his thoughts, a mental pause if one were to call it anything, and then continued. _"She's too innocent either way."_

"_Is this why you protected her while we stayed with Rehka? You didn't let her have any of the sake, yet you let her have some of the Sweet Tea that Rehka is known for cooking up. We saw what that stuff does to me and you, and then we saw what it does to her. Are you doing this because you want to keep her innocent or because you're truly letting someone in?" _Naruto had nothing to say on this matter. He simply turned and started walking away. _"You should know she's thinking about you right now and wants to know what's up with you now." _

Naruto waved to the group and vanished into the back room. Ty Lee, deciding to take his advice, stood up. "I think I'm going to pass as well, guys. Sorry." She offered up while following after Naruto. Azula was right on her heels, a sly smile forming on the corner of her lips.

With the three gone, Mai turned her focus to the knife in question and coughed. "You ready?" Zentrai nodded and watched as she instigated the same loophole he was planning to do. Lifting up her sleeve, she pulled off one stiletto blade and placed it in the pot. "I've played this game before." She offered up.

(-)

If one were to ask what drove Xin Fu or Master Yu, they would answer that it was money that drove them. They both loved money. They did unusual things for money. Master Yu had an Earthbending Academy where he suckered kids in to learn Earthbending by saying they were good and bumping them up to the next rank when they really didn't learn anything new to earn such a rank. He'd also slowly increase the pay, saying that their increase in rank demands more advanced training, and would require more money to continue the training.

Xin Fu had a love for money by hosting the Earthbending Wrestling matches. The last one he held was the Earth Rubble Six, where his two most prized fighters, The Boulder and The Blind Bandit, would fight over the belt she possessed. The Boulder had to fight his way through dozens of other Earthbending Fighters before even getting a shot at The Blind Bandit. He lost in the end, but that was somewhat expected by Xin Fu. And to make things more interesting, he had challenged anyone in the audience to stand up and fight her for a bag of gold pieces.

Those gold pieces would have been nothing but chump change to him, but he felt a connection to all his money and hardly ever parted with it. It was the money from the entrance way where people paid to get in. Now that he had lost it, he was agitated and had tried something new to get his money back. Of course his plan backfired and Toph Be Fong, The Blind Bandit, had turned around to help her new found friends in taking their friend back.

And now he was angry. He and Master Yu had no idea on where to begin their hunt for the girl. This was all because her father was paying them a small chest full of gold pieces to get her back. If it were anything else, they'd just stand back and let it play out on its own. But no. He had to be a greedy bastard and want the money for himself. Sure he'd split it with Master Yu, but only after he made sure he got two thirds of it.

He stood up from his spot on the ground and looked to the stars. _One more tournament before we leave. We'll give the people something to remember us by while we're gone. And it will give us plenty of money before we leave. _He turned around and walked back inside the stadium so that he could get things ready. The people needed to know that a new tournament was about to be held.

(-)

Naruto stopped petting Rai for a moment as his large head rose up from his lap. The door was slowly opened by Ty Lee with Azula standing right behind her. Naruto narrowed his eyes on Azula but figured there was no point in a fight at the moment. Rai could take Azula on, on his own. And if he couldn't take Azula down, Shibaru could surely take her down as well.

The two girls moved into the room and sat down a good distance away from the two large beasts. Azula noted that Shibaru seemed to continue growling at Ty Lee for some reason. Even she found that strange since Ty Lee usually had all animals jumping to be with her.

"What do you want?" Naruto snapped quickly. Like on the boat and when he wasn't set for doing a mission, he was back to his civilian clothes. If Azula were to try and seduce him now, she'd have a good motivation with his shirt opened and his chest visible.

Ty Lee spoke up first. "We don't have much else to do while we head towards this village. And you said I shouldn't play that game with them. So I might as well try to talk with you since I'm not tired." She answered while going through her stretches. She could see Naruto watching her carefully, and she grinned as a result.

"Ty Lee, one of seven sisters," Naruto said quickly and jokingly. She blinked and stopped her stretching as he continued speaking. "You're father is a nobleman with royal blood as well, just not as high up as Azula or Zuko's royal blood. You're sisters all look just like you, but have different outlooks on life, different personalities, and abilities. You wanted to be different, and in the end joined the Fire Nation circus for your amazing talents. You learned the High Wire act faster than anyone else has. With your natural flexibility, you were crafted for other things other than the High Wire act, but chose to keep that one up. You've never killed anyone and the only bounty you have on your head is created by your natural talents and the way you flaunt your body. Most of these people that have paid for your head are jealous women."

"I have women that are jealous of me?" She asked innocently. Azula tried to make her giggling sound convincing. She failed and she knew it, but she didn't care. This method of trying to seduce Naruto was failing and she might as well continue it until she could switch things around and hopefully stun him. Ty Lee took note of it and smiled. "That was almost convincing, Azula! You just need to sound a little happier while you do it! Like this!" And Ty Lee demonstrated how a happy giggle sounded.

Naruto watched them interact as he heard Zentrai's voice pop into his head. _"I'm winning this match so you know." _

"_I figured as much. What do you want?"_

"_I just wanna talk. Mai's not very talkative and her mind is closed at the moment. Well it's not closed. It's more like its just blank at the moment. She's not thinking of anything at the moment and it's a little... Wait. She just thought of Zuko for a moment. And now she's thinking about how much of a prick of I am for reading her mind. I wonder how people can tell when I'm reading their minds or not?"_

"_It's your facial expressions. When you start reading someone's mind you tend to get a sly smile and when you find something interesting that they're thinking about, you tend to start actually smiling. But what do you want?"_

"_I just wanted to talk! I'm bored out of my mind. Well almost out of my mind. Bitch!" _There was a pause and then Zentrai's voice returned. _"She had three Aces and two Kings. She won that hand. But the prize will still be mine."_

"_Shouldn't you be concentrating on your game and not talking to me? I get you can multitask and all, but this is ridicules."_

"_No. You're the multitasker. I'm the person who can rape you with my mind!" _

"_Stay out of my head for the time being until you either win or lose your game or we make it to our destination." _Naruto rubbed his eyes for a moment and when they adjusted, he found Ty Lee staring at him, her face inches away from his own. Azula was off to the side, her eyes narrowed as if she were trying to jot this all down in her mind. Naruto suddenly leaned back and slowly put his hand on her forehead, pushing her back. "Respect my personal space, please." He asked.

"You're aura was changing colors really fast. Were you talking with Zentrai again?" The blond cursed inwardly, getting a laugh from Zentrai as he did, and nodded. "How are you two friends if you just annoy one another? I don't understand that."

The blond chuckled for a moment. "We really are strange, aren't we?" Azula didn't stop herself from nodding while Ty Lee hesitated and nodded with a sly smile. "Well to be honest, we became friends slowly. We sort of spent most of our time actually fighting when we got out on our own. After a while it just became the norm for us. We fight like brothers, so it's no surprise that people started calling us the Assassin Brothers."

"If you two aren't brothers, why'd you take the name then?"

"I suppose it's because the people who know us know we fight like siblings most of the time. To be honest, Zentrai is like the brother I never had. And he knows that. He's older than me by a year and will always be a little bizarre, just like me I suppose. I have my problems and he has his. We sort of cancel each others' problems out most of the time anyways."

"Do you guys always argue, or is it something you do in front of others for show?" Azula asked.

Naruto gave her a strange glance but replied. "No. We argue quiet a lot. I don't think we've had a single day go by where we don't have an argument about something, be it simple or complex. I think we do it now just for the entertainment value in it." The two females doubted that was the real case, but accepted it nonetheless. The blond groaned suddenly and messaged his temples while saying, "I'm tired. So if you would, please wake me when we get to the village. I'll run out for information while you all stay in here. My method is less than pleasing for any women that happen to watch me do it."

The two girls watched him rise to his feet, Rai following after him as he left, and head towards his part of the tank-like train.

(-)

Naruto found himself alone, pacing through the rows of one of Ba Sing Se's many orchards inside their great and powerful walls. Branches brushed past him on either side, heavy with fantastic fruit: cherries, plums, apples, apricots-and many more, all beaded with condensation from the morning dew. He pulled the apple free and brushed away the dew away, revealing the luscious green skin beneath it. It glowed like a thing on fire. _Friday, _he thought. _Friday… _But he wasn't sure exactly why. He took a bite and savored the taste of the apple. _Friday…_ He shook his head, still not understanding it.

Naruto tossed the apple aside and started walking down the row. He used one hand to wipe away the dew from his lips and was surprised when he found himself in his old ninja clothing: the bright orange jumpsuit he used to wear, still sporting a giant hole on the right side of his body near his shoulder.

"_It's too late, Naruto." _Naruto heard Sasuke's voice, a breeze through the icy leaves.

Suddenly, the branches shook in a whoosh of a passing fireball. Looking up, Naruto barely caught sight of a Fire Nation fireball passing low above the orchard. Burning debris rained down on the trees, igniting them and turning them ablaze. Naruto took off running in pursuit as screams began to sound in the distance.

But now the farther he pushed through the branches, the hotter they became. Water ran in rivulets down waxy leaves-dropped from the fruit like rain. The heat from the attacks was destroying the ice that covered the plants. Naruto felt a humid gust of air that became unbearably hot the farther he pressed forward. He closed his eyes, lids burning, and felt the branches give away to something solid: a wooden double door leading into a small restaurant.

Pushing through, Naruto saw the door was one of the few things left standing. The restaurant's roof was blown clean off. Its walls were splintered and its windows shattered. All the tables and chairs were burned and smelled of smoke. Towards the back sat a family of four, their cheerful clothes the only things not covered in a layer of ash. One of the children looked familiar to him and waved to him. As Naruto waved back, the kid took a bite and pointed to the food counter. Naruto turned and saw a woman on a stool, wearing a black outfit.

"It's supposed to mourning clothes," Sakura said, twisting on the stool.

"I know," Naruto replied, reaching to straighten his headband. But he no longer wore his bright orange jumpsuit. Instead he found himself burdened with his assassin's outfit.

Sakura frowned. "I can see you don't care at all about the Sandaime Hokage." She walked towards the door. Whether she was aware of the fighting outside or not, she didn't show it as she moved to the door. She casually reached for the door, as if to taunt him, and began to twist the handle.

"Careful, Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted. "It's not safe outside!" He tried to leap forward and stop her from leaving. But his legs were leaden-rooted to the floor. Naruto heard the roar of a fireball, saw its shadow ripple across the counter. The young boy at the table started to choke.

"Relax," a voice said to Naruto. "You'll be alright."

Naruto groaned and dropped to a knee. His suit had become unbearably heavy. He planted his gauntlet covered hands on the ash-covered floor to keep himself collapsing. Through narrowed eyes he saw the boot prints: the frantic footwork of Firebenders working to surround a target.

The voice repeated herself. But this time her voice seemed to come from somewhere else-an echo from beyond the restaurant, but somehow very close to Naruto's ears.

"_Relax. You'll be alright…" _

Naruto did, and he was for a moment. He felt a wave of calm wash over. He only knew what it felt like thanks to Zentrai. He breathed deeply and slowly as he tried to calm down. His breathed was choked by something. Something was burning. His eyes opened and a sea of flames greeted him. Heat smothered him and he fought hard to breath. The flames danced around him with darkened silhouettes just out of eye sight.

The voice returned, but spoke with darker intent that carried a deep sense of fear through the teen.

"_I have seen your future and I have learned…" _

Pain lanced up Naruto's side and he was quickly awakened when the main intensified. Like water going down the drain, the dream faded and swirled away from him. He let it happen. He didn't fight back. His eyes opened when he felt the pain leave him and his vision return to darkness. Opening his eyes he wasn't surprised to see that his left arm was bleeding and in the mouth of Rai. He looked worried. Naruto reached over and gave him a gentle pat on the head. Rai released his arm and Naruto held as his blood dripped onto the bed.

"It was just a bad dream, Rai. I'm fine." Rai inclined his head to the side, a human trait that left smiling. "It was just a nightmare, Rai. I'll be fine." He stood up and reached for the bandages he kept in his pouches. Retrieving them and going to work on his bleeding arm, he looked past the open door and towards the shadows that waited for him. "Rai, I know you can't talk to me since I'm not a telepath like Zentrai, but have you ever had a feeling that no matter what you did, no matter where you ran, you were always being led by someone… or something?"

The massive beast inclined his head once and rose back to all fours. Naruto softly patted him on the head once before standing up.

The blond moved toward the door and began heading for the others. His bandaged arm would get questions for sure, but he could easily tell Azula off or simply state he was too careless with one of his knives and got hurt. He knew she'd believe him, not out of respect or trust, but simply because it was a lie that told her to leave him alone. As he reached the door where the others were clearly having fun, he pushed it open just in time to hit Ty Lee in the face with the door.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked, dropping down to help the young acrobat up. Zentrai whistled before taking notice of the bandaged limb. Helping the girl up, she smiled and waved it off before running down the hallways towards the bathroom. The blond shook his head and yawned. "Did we make it to the village yet?"

"We were sending Ty Lee to wake you up," Azula informed him. She eyed the bleeding limb and then Rai. "Did your pet not like something you did to him?"

"I cut myself when I woke up. I was being stupid with my weapons." He looked at two large piles of weapons that were now on either side of the still playing teens. Mai looked rather mad at the moment while Zentrai seemed unusually happy. "Who's winning?"

"_Me, of course," _Zentrai's mental voice rang out happily. Mai growled. _"You lost that hand so it's time to take something off." _Mai reached into her sleeves and pulled out a single strap of leather with a few wires attached to it. She tossed it to the larger of the two piles and dealt out the next hand. _"She's losing right now and is about to run out of throwing weapons." _

"That's nice… I guess." The blond moved towards a set of curtains that covered Azula's Palin King and tore them off. "These will do nicely." He said simply.

Azula gawked and stormed straight up to him. Sure she didn't get a chance to use it outside anymore since it was actually melted to the floor of this thing, but it was still her personally throne: a place to meditate, clear her mind and do some tactically thinking. And he just tore down two of the dark purple curtains that covered this one. Sure they were almost transparent, but what could he possibly use them for? And without asking her for permission.

"You had better have a good reason for doing that," she snapped.

"I have my reasons." Naruto folded them over his shoulder and began heading towards the main hatch. He kicked it open and bathed in the darkness. He drank it up with a smile as he started wrapping the cloth around his form. As expected it was hard to see what was underneath the cloth, but still slightly visible as well. He liked this, a lot more than he dare admit. "Stay here and out of sight. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Azula wasn't one to take something like this lying down. She stormed up to him, Firebending at the ground in front of him and forcing him to stop. She landed in front of him and stormed up him, one finger instantly poking his chest. "You shouldn't go around tearing down my stuff!" She tried not to sound angry, but she failed horribly.

Before she could blink, Naruto was on her and had struck her across the face with a hard punch. In all her life she had never been struck by anyone really. She'd been disciplined with words, but never struck. And Naruto must have known since he punched her as hard as he could-or at least she believed he could-across her face. She hit the ground, got up and tried to Firebend at him.

Naruto was on her before the fire could form and instantly had her pinned against the hull of the tank-like train. She squirmed a bit, but Naruto put a stop to that by placing a thin blade right between her breasts. "Ninety-five percent," he said quietly. His voice carried and Mai was quickly outside to assess the situation with Ty Lee doing the same. Zentrai remained inside and shaking his head. Azula started to speak, but the blond pressed the blade into her flesh. It only went skin deep, but still the message was clear to her. "You're treading on dangerous grounds right now, Azula. If it weren't for the fact that I don't want to look like you, I'd actually kill you right now. Don't ever cross me like this again. Or your death will be slow, painful, and very exotic." He moved the blade down her clothing, cutting them open and stopping only when he reached the spot between her legs.

Azula didn't bat an eyelash to this. She accepted it with dignity and joy to know she was getting under his skin. The blond took a step back and she stepped forward. Without warning, Naruto reeled back and punched the hull of the metal monster right beside her head; leaving a fat dent and having the thing get picked up slightly. It thundered back to its normal position, leaving Azula only slightly terrified by his power.

"Stay here. If you follow, I will find someone to rape you while I kill you… slowly." He turned and started walking into the village.

Azula growled and walked back inside the thing only to be stopped by Zentrai when he said, _"Torture and then death. I wonder if he'd want me to track down Den and have him rape you for information."_

Ty Lee stood still of a moment as the she tried to digest that information. She failed and instantly went on the defensive for her friends. "Rape is a serious thing! How can you act so smug about it when…"

"_Rape is a form of torture," _he explained to the females. Azula scoffed at that while Mai shivered. Ty Lee looked away as if she'd either been raped once before or knew someone who had. The telepath continued. _"Most people don't think about it, but rape is a form of torture and you can get information while doing it to someone. It's not something I use, as I hate rapists. But it is an effective method when dealing with virgin women." _

"How can you say that?" Mai snapped. Zentrai said nothing to either girl. "You make it sound like it's something to be joyful about! It's a scary thing for women! Do you have any idea on how terrified I would be if I were getting raped? I'd…" She stopped and thought about what she was about to say. Ty Lee was quick to pick up on it and turned away with closed eyes. "I can see how it would be used then. But it's still unthinkable."

The male teen started shuffling the cards as he said, _"Most methods of torture or unthinkable. That's why they have special people who do them. There are many forms of torture in this world, and only one of them I implore. Den on the other hand will use all methods of torture from bizarre to unthinkable. Have you ever watched a rough interrogation? It's not pretty. And it's only worse when the victim is female. They tend to get a little… violent with the females. Den once implored rape with three kinds of water torture. Believe me, it's cruel, but people who go through it will tell you anything you wanna know. People who wanna live will tell you everything they ever did, all the way down to the time they kicked their pet or even once had a passing thought on raping their own children. It's a very scary thing and it only worse in the hands of a professional."_

The three girls turned back to the village that glittered in the distance. It was shining brightly with the stars as the civilians used the green crystals for light. "Whatever method Naruto implores…" Azula whispered. She let it hang there as if it were an open threat. Zentrai had nothing to say on the matter anymore. He was clearly a little disgusted by the conversation or by whatever Naruto was about to do.

(-)

Gin was a happy teenager. His father was rich. His mother was rich. His sister had married a richer man and had managed to get him the one thing he always wanted: tickets to Earth Rumble Seven. For the last few days it was common knowledge that a new one was about to be held. While they had no problem in the past getting tickets, it was the fact that these tickets as of today were a little high. Usually they were ten or fifteen gold pieces or about thirty silver pieces. Today they were thirty gold pieces, a far cry higher than what he normally paid. Sure his parents could have gotten him the tickets, but this time he failed to get one thing he needed: a girl to take to the show.

This was why he was currently roaming the streets in search of a stray girl that he could charm and take to the show and hopefully score with later on. He didn't truly care about looks. He was actually desperate. He needed a girl for this. He'd look strange if he didn't take one. His brother already had a girl and would be waiting for him at the entrance. The problem was that he only had an hour to get a girl and get there. He could make it, but it'd be close so long as the girl he got wasn't slow.

Pacing through the ghost streets of the village, he spied something in the distance. A girl was in the center of the street and lying on the ground. _Bandits, _he thought fearfully. She whimpered and pleaded for help. He looked around and then back at the girl. Long brown hair that shined like the moon, bouncing its reflection back at it. Dark amethyst colored eyes that were puffy from tears and makeup that was stained from her tears. She was hurt and in trouble judging by her torn up outfit.

"Help me," she cried out weakly as she reached for him.

Gin looked and then moved towards the down girl. He knelt down to inspect her ankle, which was clearly twisted. "What happened?" He asked tenderly as he helped her stand. She weighed a bit more than what he bargained for and the two collapsed onto the ground. She was on top of him in a provocative way. "Are you okay?" He asked fearfully.

"I sprang my ankle while heading out to find a boy to take me to the show." She turned and looked at her ankle. "But I tripped and hurt myself. Now I won't get to see The Boulder fight The Hippo or watch my big brother fight in the tournament this time." She started crying again.

Gin felt a pang of guilt before latching on to what she said. "You're big brother is fighting in the tournament? What's his name?" He pushed her up and stood up straight. Letting the young teen rest on his shoulder, he was finally able to get a good look at her clothing. It didn't exist. Her idea of a robe was actually see through and he could easily see her tits and well curved body. He could even see her naughty bits which had him turning away as quickly as he could to hide the nosebleed he got.

"My brother is called the Bloody Inferno." His eyes widened. "I was hoping to watch him fight all of them. He supposed to be in the stands and he heard a rumor that anyone that wished to challenge all of the fighters after the match, or a single fighter, may do so. He wants to take them all on. He's so strong." She blushed and held her cheeks. "My brother is the best brother in the world."

"If I take you there, we can watch him together!" The girl smiled and her eyes lit up. "But the problem is that you're hurt and we're going to be late."

"Go and find my brother. He has blond hair, blue eyes, and will be easy to find. He'll be the only one with whisker marks on the side of his face. Please go and find him for me and tell him what's happened to me. He'll come and get me and get me there before the thing even starts!" Without a second thought the boy placed her against a wall, making sure not to hurt her, and then ran off telling her he'd find him for her and let him know about what had happened. When he was out of sight, the girl grinned, got back up, and cracked her back. A puff of smoke and Naruto was revealed. "Why are men so dumb?"

(-)

"I've got the location!" Naruto shouted as he entered the metal beast. Ty Lee jumped up with Azula when his voice cracked like a whip. There was something in it that had the two unnerved a bit just by how he sounded. The blond paid them no mind, along with his friend as he moved to the back and retrieved some cloaks. "I'll need some help with this. Please put these on and don't complain. Keep the hoods up and don't talk unless spoken to."

The blond threw darks cloaks to the two females and halted when he was about to throw the other two to Zentrai and Mai when he took notice of something. Mai was missing all but her thong at the moment. She was losing the match and Naruto for one wasn't very pleased with the situation since he knew Zentrai could outlast her in this. Judging by the two piles of clothing and weapons, Zentrai still had his chest, left arm, both legs, and possibly the few he kept in his hair left.

Reaching over, he snatched up the weapon and glared at the two. "You can have it back when we're finished." Zentrai rolled his hands and placed his cards on the table while Mai hurriedly jumped up and began putting her clothing back on. She reached for her weapons, but a quick cough from the blond assassin had her halting. "That won't be necessary. I'll be doing all the fighting/talking. So don't worry about getting your hands dirty with this one. You only need to keep your mouth shut and your head down."

He tossed the robe to her and turned to walk out.

Azula moved in front of him, her hands holding the cloth at arms distant as she said, "You expect me to wear a peasant's style of clothing?"

"Would you rather die or wear that?" She stared him down and then put it on. "Good girl. You're not as much of a bitch as I thought you'd be. Now pip down and follow me." He turned and began walking with the others trailing behind him.

(-)

Xin Fu couldn't believe what was being said. _The Bloody Inferno is coming, _he thought with a snarl. He banged his fist into the wall and ignored the large rocks that landed down in front of him. _Why is that bastard coming back here? Isn't it bad enough he killed my last set of stars? What could bring him back here? It's certainly not me. _He closed his eyes and tried to think of a reason. Xin Fu had only messed with the blond once and barely walked away last time. But last time he wasn't as good an Earthbender like he was now.

"Xin Fu," Master Yu made his presence known. The younger Earthbender turned and snarled at the man. "I heard that the Bloody Inferno will be here."

"Yeah… He's going to be here. And I'm going to crush him this time. It won't be like the last time we fought." He turned and stormed away, leaving the old instructor behind to collect his thoughts on the matter.

(-)

"This is so wrong," Mai whispered.

"Shut up," A brown haired girl snapped. The slightly younger teen was being led by the same boy Naruto had encountered a few minutes ago. The boy had sprung up out of nowhere and grabbed her up and was now leading them to the entrance.

Gin gave them a strange glance before she waved it off. "You're friends are a little…" Gin began.

"Strange," she asked happily as she nuzzled into his muscled arms. He blushed and wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her close. She took pleasure in that and he began to smile. "How about after this we go have some fun if my brother wins!"

Ty Lee, Azula, and Mai watched the "couple" talk with frowns. Azula for one found this utterly disgusting, but she understood the logic in this ability of his. Getting a stupid guy was luck because Naruto, the teen that was pretending to be impressed with Gin, had actually seduced him and was pretending to be lead around like a lost puppy when the guy was the one actually being lead around like a lost puppy. Azula made sure to watch him carefully to see if she could learn anything from this.

For Ty Lee, she was just disgusted by the fact that Naruto had this ability and used it so openly. She hated that he made his hair shin like the moon. She hated that he made his eyes colorful and bright and sexy. She hated that he had a large bust that was easily seen through the thin cloth. She hated his girly voice. She hated everything about him right now, actually. This was a disgrace to all women. And yet she was thrilled to know he could do this and found the girl ironically very attractive.

Mai just accepted it, but still hated it.

The stopped at a large cave where two thickly muscled men, stood at the entrance with a booth and another guy taking the money. Gin stopped them and looked at the group. "Listen, I don't think I have enough money to actually pay for all of you. So unless you have your own money, you can't follow."

Naruto, using the cover name of Shizune, spoke up. "We've got money! Don't worry!" She chimed. Azula bared her teeth and bit back on her tongue from making a snide remark. They moved up to the guards, paid for the entrance, and moved towards their spot. Gin tried to get seats that were higher up, but Naruto wanted front row seats. Gin, not wanting to leave his new girl, decided to stay.

As everyone finished getting their seats and something to eat, Naruto watched and waited for a sign from the person he needed to meet with. It was actually someone who knew the last location of their target and one that he hadn't scheduled to met with. In all actuality he was expecting this to end horribly with him fighting everyone here. It wouldn't be that far of a stretch since Xin Fu was the last person to see their target and possibly had the same target already.

The blond knew that Xin Fu was to save Toph Be Fong, the daughter of the wealthiest man in the village. Naruto believed this to be karma on that man's part. He had kept his daughter under lock and key, never once letting her leave the estate unless she somehow managed to run away from him with their knowledge on the matter. The blond truly believed that to be karma. What else could it be?

Xin Fu walked out into the center of the arena, his eyes running over all the people here. The blond grinned as he watched his eyes search for him. This was the other reason he wore a henge at the moment. Xin Fu wouldn't be able to identify him with him being like this, and with Zentrai and the others wearing cloaks, it would make things harder for them to find them as well.

Xin Fu stopped looking for his target and raised a fist into the air. The earth shook and a pillar rose beneath him, bringing him up into the air and letting him pretend he were god for a moment. "I am Xin Fu; your host, here are Earth Rumble Seven!" The crowd cheered. Naruto and Gin cheered as well as a result. Xin Fu punched the earth to knock the pillar back into the ground. He raised one hand to calm the masses. "The rules are simple. Knock your opponent out of the ring to win." He jumped for the private box and continued. "The first match will be The Hippo vs Fire Nation Men!"

The crowd erupted into a fit of boos while Azula started chuckling.

Naruto ignored the fight and waited for his chance. The next of fights ended all the same. The Hippo beat his opponent and then lost The Boulder. The Boulder won his matches again The Doc, Masked Avenger, and then lost to a tag team match against two other fighters. Naruto didn't understand it, but after a while, things turned into a royal rumble with The Boulder leading the pack. And after two hours of senseless fighting for the people's entertainment, Naruto got his shot.

Xin Fu landed down to the Tag Team Champions, The Boulder and The Hippo. He patted them both on the back, once more reeling in disgust to the smell of The Hippo. With a sack of silver pieces this time, he raised it into the air and said, "To make things more interesting this time around. I'm offering up this sack of silver pieces to anyone who can beat either of these two men!" A cricket sounded in the distance. "No one wants to challenge them?"

"I will!" Naruto said in his female form. Gin watched in horror as she ran up to the arena, stumbling as she did. She tripped and rolled onto the arena, eyes blinking in confusion. She kicked the step she tripped on and then stopped in front of the two men. Xin Fu eyed the transformed teen for a moment before jumping away. "Do I get more money if I can beat them both at the same time?"

Xin Fu looked over the edge of his private box with an arched brow.

"If you can beat them," he said simply.

Naruto smiled and bounced up and down, her breasts bouncing with the motion. "Yeah! I get to fight my idols!"

"Ooookay," The Boulder began in confusion. "The Boulder feels a little conflicted about fighting a young girl that's views him as her idol." The Hippo growled and slammed his oversized fist into his chest. The Boulder straightened up and nodded. "The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings! And is ready to burry you in a Rock Alanche! The Boulder won't be made a fool of by another young girl!" Naruto continued to jump up and down, much to the annoyance of The Boulder. "It's on!" He screamed.

Naruto stopped jumping, grabbed his cloak, and took it off. The Boulder and Hippo froze in shock. Naruto, in his female form, wore nothing under the cloak. Everything was on display for the world to see. Clean shaved, well groomed, it was no wonder he seduced the poor boy that was now out cold. "Let's fight!" She screamed.

The crowd erupted into a fit of giggles as Naruto ran straight at the two stunned men. Before they could snap out of their stupor, Naruto was on them. Hippo went down quickly with a simple chop to the back of the neck and a single kick to the back of the knees. He crashed to the ground hard and didn't get up. The Boulder took a step back and summoned up two massive boulders with his Earthbending powers. Before they could fly, Naruto was on him too and kneeing him in the face, the balls, and palming him three times in the chest. He coughed up blood, lost his concentration, and collapsed under his own attack.

Xin Fu blinked, his hands flexing in anger. _It's him! _

Naruto looked up at him and smiled. "I win!" Xin took a calming breath and jumped down. "Where's my money? Don't I get twice as much for beating them?" He asked while jumping up and down.

Xin Fu stared at his sack of money and then pocketed it. "No… Bloody Inferno. You don't get the money."

Naruto stopped jumping and grinned. In a cloud of a smoke, he was returned to normal and eyed the man dangerously. "Hello Xin Fu. How have you been since I last visited?" The muscled Earthbender began breathing heavily. "I'm only here for information. You were the last person to see my target and know which direction they took off in. If you tell me what I wanna know, I'll let you keep the money and let you go after your target which is helping mine."

"And why should I tell you anything after what you did last time?"

"Because if you don't tell me what I wanna know… I'll repeat what happened last time. And this time around things will be much more gruesome than last time. Last time I beat only two of your star fighters. This time I'll simply beat them all into the ground before moving onto you. And we both know you can't win in a fight against me. I've beaten you once before and I'll do it again. So tell me what I wanna know or you had better start fighting like your life depends on it."

The ground shook and the other fighters appeared. Some of them were sporting bandages while others showed no concern for their injuries.

Off in the stands, Ty Lee and Mai rose to help only to be yanked back down to ground by Zentrai. "He's going to need help." Mai argued.

"_You clearly are underestimating him," _Zentrai said quietly in their minds. There was a detached tone to his mental voice. It sent a wave of chills from him to them and they shivered slightly as a result._ "What you're about to see is a piece of his power. This will be nothing to him. If he uses his special powers it will be only to entice fear and force them to surrender. He would rather do this without fighting, but sometimes fighting is the only way. This too is another form of torture. If your hearts and minds are set to watch this, you might wanna leave. But if you want to watch, you must be ready to understand and except the simple fact that Naruto, no matter how you look at him, is a lot darker than he seems."_

The fight was on in a flash. The army of Earthbending wrestlers threw dozens of large rocks at the teen. Naruto stood his ground and then dropped to the ground by doing the splits. The boulders flew over his head and he rose back to his feet just as quickly as they did in bringing more rocks up for them to use.

The blond ducked and jumped to the side, dodging the barrage of earth. A masked fighter that Naruto couldn't remember by name threw a large slab of earth at him. The teen hit the ground rolling and jumped away landing on one hand and pushing off a moment later. The same fighter charged him as Xin Fu and another guy kept Naruto on the defense. When he got in close he swung for the teen's head only to have it backfire as the blond grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and kicked him three times in the back. Staggering as the blond let him go, he turned right into Naruto's backhanded fist and skidded backwards with blood jetting out of his mouth.

The crowd began to cheer to this.

Xin Fu, angry that Naruto was earning the people's respect and that he was losing this fight already, began an advanced Earthbending move while the others covered him.

The blond watched him go through the motions. It did look like dancing, but it also reminded the teen of some of the more advanced jutsus of his time. There were a few that required more than simple hand signs to be do the spell. Some required things like rapid arm movements that weren't transfixed to a hand sign itself. They would require that the person move their arms around, sometimes keeping one stationary while the other moved around.

But his focus wasn't on him anymore. It was now on the approaching threats.

Four fighters moved in to surround him. The blond looked at the four and watched to see what they'd do.

They struck as one. The teen moved forward and dodged each of their attacks, letting them slam into each other as a result. The four men stood their ground and tried it again. The blond sighed as he was forced to move this time around, rather than just take a single step. He jumped into the air, twisted and punched the only rock on the way for his face. It shattered into pieces and he hit the ground. They raised chunks of earth and the teen was on them before they could attack again.

A few quick jabs and kicks and the men were on the ground withering in pain.

The ground shook and Xin Fu finished his advanced Earthbending move. The ground cracked and the stadium exploded upwards. It bent and Naruto knew he was trying to sandwich him. Xin Fu made certain that his prized fighters escaped by having a few of the others Earthbend them out of the range of the attack. They were pulled out and Naruto remained inside. Finishing up, he slammed both of his forearms together and the thing slammed together.

Not wanting to take a chance, he rushed the thing and started slamming his fist into it. His fists went straight into the earth and spikes jetted out the back of it, showing that he was trying to skewer the teen that was inside if he wasn't already a pancake. He punched it again and again, each punch making new spikes that jetted out of the back of it and remained in position despite the pounding the large slab of earth was taking.

Xin Fu stopped, took two steps back and then jumped forward, slamming both fists into the thing. The back of it exploded outward and the front of it crumbled at his feet. He smiled happily as he watched the debris hit the ground and the teen nowhere in sight. He would have been worried it there was anything left of him. The move was meant to flatten an opponent and then skewer them to death. If he survived it, then he did the move wrong.

"Looks like I win." Xin Fu cheered for himself. His moment of glory was interrupted by a loud gasp that echoed through the crowd. Gazing up to where they looked, he nearly bit off his tongue to hold back his own flow of curses as Naruto was shown to be standing upside down on the ceiling. _How did he…_

"I survived by having a clone take my place right before the thing slammed together," Naruto stated with a grin. Xin Fu gulped. "Yes… I can read minds." He lied while looking away. "I can also see into the future. But enough about my abilities… Is it my turn yet?"

"No. I'm far from finished."

He raised dozens of boulders and kicked them up at the teen. Naruto yawned and dropped from the ceiling. Xin Fu smiled and kicked the earth with his heel. Spikes appeared from the earth where Naruto was coming down. The blond smirked and was skewered. Seeing him get skewered, Xin Fu pumped his fist into the air only to bring it down when Naruto exploded into a cloud of smoke. He looked high and low for the teen before remembering that he came here with some friends.

Xin Fu turned and fired at the crowd. The large boulders flew at Zentrai and the Fire Nation girls. For a moment, Xin Fu wondered if this was going too far. Sure he greedy for power and wealth, but he was putting peoples' lives he was putting in danger. He'd be damaging his carrier as a host for these sorts of shows and his status in the world as a great Earthbender. He'd bring shame to the people that taught him Earthbending.

His attack was halted and Naruto appeared with a scowl on his face.

No. This was worth it. He wanted this boy dead for what he'd done to him. He brought shame to his arena for besting him once before when he was still learning how to Earthbend with his master. He could stand to lose a little honor in all of this. Even if that honor was thrown onto the shoulders of the Bloody Inferno. He could stand to lose just enough so that he could gain it all back when he killed him for his past actions.

Naruto kept his eyes closed for a moment and breathed slowly. When his eyes opened they were slitted and red as his whiskers thickened. Fangs protruded out of his lips and he shook his now unruly hair as his nails turned to claws. He cracked his neck, removing a crick that had built up and flexed his bandaged covered arm. "Xin Fu, I can take a lot of things, but endangering the innocent and the weak is one thing I can't stand. You're a great Earthbender, trained by a master that has passed on. You are his living legacy. So I will not end his legacy today out of respect for an old friend of Master Gen Fu. But I will take revenge for what you have just done."

Red energy began to swirl around him and the crowd held their breath. Xin Fu took a step back with his wrestlers and gasped as a tremor shot through the ground. His clothing flapped as if a tornado were upon him. His bandages unraveled from his arm, revealing that his injury was gone. His shirt exploded off him and a tattoo ran over his body that started at his stomach. It ran over every inch of his body that they could see and converged around the first tattoo on his stomach and on the center of his back. Flames danced around him and he let loose a powerful roar that deafened everyone.

When their ears stopped ringing they could hear a few of the wrestlers whimpering and turning tail. "I'm not fighting the One Winged Red Angel!" One of them cried as he fled the scene.

"I'm getting out of here! I ain't stupid enough to fight him either!"

"This is the power of the Red Beast? Unreal." Another said quietly. He too turned tail and ran, leaving only a handful standing against the teen.

Xin Fu snarled at all of them and glared at the teen. "You may have a lot of nicknames, but you are not an angel!" He retorted.

"I only earned that name by chance," Naruto informed him quietly. His eyes closed. "I got that name by a woman that I trained with. She called me that when I saved her life one day and told me I was an angel. I'm not angel, but she stuck to calling me that until I told her I wasn't one and she chose to call me by that name from that day forward. Even now she calls me that. I'm her One Winged Red Angel. I'm the Angel of Death. The Red Devil. The Red Demon. The Bloody Inferno. I'm Hells Agent. Call me what you will, but I have a name. My name is Uzumaki Naruto! And before this day is officially over, you will remember my name and the pain I've inflicted upon you for the rest of your life!"

Xin Fu shouted and started throwing rocks at him. But before the first one could leave his sight Naruto had moved beside him, one arm wrapped around one of his fighters and his eyes closed. _So fast, _he thought.

"Tell me what I want to know. This is your last chance."

"Never!"

"So be it."

Naruto punched the man in his arms and watched him fly with blood flying out of his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. He dropped to the ground and rolled off the arena before Xin Fu could even turn to attack the teen. When he finally got fully turned to attack, Naruto was behind him and already hammering away on another one of the wrestlers that choose to stay and fight. This one took three blows. He took a palm thrust to the chest and a kick to both knee caps. He dropped like a stone to his knees and the teen elbowed him hard in the face. He rocketed across the arena and slid off the edge.

Xin Fu turned fully and threw three rocks at him. Naruto moved his head to the side, dodging one. He stepped to the left, dodging another, and then ducked to dodge the third one. He spun while he was ducking and turned fully to face Xin Fu. "Only when I'm done with the others will I deal with you. This is torture for not telling me what I wanted and starting this fight. I get no enjoyment out of this. I only feel sorrow for those who see me like this. You had your chance. Now suffer."

Naruto blurred from vision and appeared in front of another wrestler that had lifted a large boulder to throw at him. With a single punch he shattered the boulder and punched him in the gut. His head whipped backwards as his body doubled over so fast that he got whiplash. His head banged against Naruto's forearm and felt the fist leave his gut. He slowly began to fall to the ground only to feel a fist connect to the side of his face, then the other side of his face, and then to the center of his forehead. His eyes widened and he let out a gut wrenching scream as blood exploded from his mouth. He dropped to the ground and began to convulse on the spot.

For those watching, it was a sight to behold. It was both thrilling to see his power and terrifying to know what he could do and what he was doing. Naruto was destroying these people and making them look like idiots. He was faster than what the eye could follow. He could punch through earth. And he was a skilled martial artist. No one could stand before him. No one could follow him. And he was nothing short of the nicknames he'd earned over the years.

But for some, seeing his power for the first time instead of reading about it, sent more than just chills down their spines: it scared them straight to their core. For people like Azula, this was more than just a demonstration of power and skill. This was a fight for survival on a level so far above her own that she felt fear course through her for the first time in a long time. All of Naruto's past threats meant nothing now. She was more terrified of him now than she'd ever let on. And yet she was glad to see this power. She drank it in for what it was worth. This was what she was after. She was after Naruto to bring him to the Fire Nation.

But watching him do this scared her so much that she wasn't aware of what was going on anymore. She could see the fight. But it no longer made sense. What was the point in this? Information? That sounded about right. But why fighting? Torture? That sounded about right as well. Was he trying to scare her? Was he trying to force someone to do something? Xin Fu knew where their target was. She shook her head as she broke into a cold sweat. She stared at her hands and watched as water dripped onto them. Was there a leak somewhere? No. She was a in a cold sweat.

She blinked and continued to stare at her own hands before something struck her. _This is fear? _

"_What you're experiencing is beyond fear," _Zentrai's voice echoed into the back of her mind. She was so scared that she didn't have the power to frown. She didn't have any power anymore. She felt helpless and weak. _"This is beyond the edge of fear and beyond the realm of despair. This feeling you have is that of a broken will. You're _will _is being broken." _Upon hearing that, she steeled herself and glared at him. _"You have much fire in your heart and eyes, but you have none in your soul."_

"Stay out of my mind." Her voice was shaking and Mai and Ty Lee stared at her with wide eyes. She cupped a hand over her mouth and noted something else. Her hand… No. Her entire body was shaking in fear. She tried to put up a strong front but it fell before she could summon her strength. She was terrified by his power.

Ty Lee turned back to the fight with her eyes wide open. Even without realizing it, she checked his aura. It was blood red. She too was caught up in the fear and forgot what blood red meant. She broke out into a cold sweat and stared down at her hands for a brief moment. She disregarded her moment of terror and looked at him again. His aura was being manipulated by something. She tried to peer deeper into it but was forced out. Shaking her head, she looked up and nearly screamed.

A giant spectral head made of red flames with black eyes was looking back at her. It's mouth opened and it gave a mute howl that sent shivers down her spine and nearly made her vomit as she felt it slowly creep into the back of her mind, flooding her mind with images of death and destruction. She tried to fight back but the images gained ground and she watched people die. No. This was right now. This was happening. These images weren't in her mind. They were right in front of her.

Mai closed her eyes and tried to put out the sounds of the fighting. She tried to put out all the screams, all the bloody images that had already flooded her mind when she watched him beat the first two people. She tried but soon fell to the power in her. She opened her eyes against her own better judgment and felt her blood empty from her body as Naruto skewered one man with his hand alone. He dropped over holding his stomach and howling in pain.

Mai turned away and felt vomit come up to the back of her mouth. She hurled and began gasping for air. _I've seen death before! I've seen death before! I've seen death before, _she chanted in her mind. She felt another wave of vomit form in the back of her throat and she tried to push it back down.

"_You have never seen death like this," _Zentrai sent to her. She looked at him with a bit of drool hanging down from her chin. Zentrai seemed detached now. His eyes were loosened and no longer held the happy glint they originally held. They were cold and lifeless like a person that had just died. The telepath and closed his eyes as the last of the wrestlers screamed loudly when Naruto stepped on his back at the lower section of his spine. He would be crippled for the rest of his life.

"_You can call him a monster, a demon, a beast, or an animal. It makes no difference to him. He's been called almost every insulting name one could think of. But he has a flaw that even I wish I had. Naruto doesn't like killing, just like I do. But he won't lose himself to a battle like this. I would lose all sense of myself and act on a primal urge to destroy my enemies and leave nothing behind. That's one of the reasons why I don't do that much fighting. Naruto will leave survivors to entice fear. I'll just kill everyone I see and be done with it. He wants people to fear him so it makes getting information easier. Me? I just as soon kill them if they don't talk."_

Azula watched Naruto dispatch the last one-his fate unknown to those watching-with wide eyes as the blond slowly began moving towards Xin Fu.

"Now," Naruto began slowly. "I offer you one last chance to tell me what I wanna know before I beat the information out of you. You're choice." Not so surprising, Xin Fu tried to skewer him on the spot with a piece of earth that rose from the ground. Naruto seemed to have predicted it and broke it before it could touch his chest. Sighing and running a hand through his wild hair, the blond gave Xin Fu a sorrow filled glance for only the briefest of moments. It was soon replaced with utter hatred. "The hard way will do I suppose. I'm not going to kill you. I'm just going to break all the bones in your body. Maybe that will get you talking. I just hope your jaw is still attached when this is over."

"My jaw will still be…" His words fell short as the blond appeared in front of him with a fist in his gut. The wrestling leader doubled over and slammed his head on Naruto's shoulder from the force of the blow he took. He coughed as all the air left his lungs, along with some of his blood. His mouth moved as if he was talking, but nothing came out. He slumped down to one knee while using Naruto to hold himself upright.

He tried to get back up, but his body jerked to the left as pain lanced through his side. He felt something break, most likely his arm. He skidded along the ground and the being of disaster began walking towards him. His pace was slow and Xin Fu was able to get to his feet. He started Earthbending the earth to rise up and halt the approach of the teen. The rock pillars he summoned did nothing to hold him back. He simply backhanded them and they were reduced to pebbles.

"Stay away from me," Xin Fu whispered so low that only Zentrai caught it with his mental abilities. Naruto might have heard it, but he didn't seem to care anymore. Xin Fu wasn't saying what he wanted to hear.

The Earthbender moved back and turned to jump off the arena. Naruto flickered in front of him as he tried to jump and grabbed him by his throat. He slammed him down into the ground hard. The arena groaned as dust was thrown into the air from the force Naruto used. Rising up to his full height, the teen raised one leg and brought it up to his chest so it was flat against him. Ty Lee marveled at this. He was showing signs of being just as flexible as her.

Xin Fu's eyes widened as Naruto brought down on his outstretched calves. Xin Fu waited for a full second before crying out, as if he were, like everyone else, surprised that the thud of Naruto's metal covered foot was louder than the near-simultaneous snap of his leg. Then he screamed, loud and long. Naruto waited patiently for him to take a breath. Then asked, "My target. Where was he last seen heading?"

Naruto figured that one broken leg would be enough. But Xin Fu was an Earthbender, a man that had trained with the best, and was once recruited to join the military before he decided against it and started this. He was uneager to tell this teen anything. He didn't beg for mercy or try to fight back anymore. He just laid there, glowering into Naruto's crimson orbs, as the teen broke his other leg. Naruto heard the sound of teeth snapping-like sticks of chalk or coal against stone.

"Next, it's you arms," Naruto said matter-of-factly. He knelt beside him, palmed his head, and wrenched it sideways. "Then I get creative."

Xin Fu stared into his eyes and swore he saw his own death in those evil eyes of his. "Si Wong Desert," he whispered through his labored breathing. "They were heading in that direction. It's the truth. I swear."

Naruto tossed his head into the ground and began walking back to the others. "See. Was that so hard?" Naruto sounded joyful with the way he spoke. Xin Fu laid there and continued to breathe heavily as the teen got to his friends. "We have our destination now. We're out of here." He paused to look at Azula. Her hands were gripping her leg like a vice. Lowering himself down to her level, he got in her face and asked, "Are you scared yet?" She nodded slowly against her own will. He rose and started walking away. "You should be."

Naruto's power faded and continued to walk as though it hadn't left him drained.

(-)

By the time they had gotten back to the metal monster they were using for transport, the girls had officially calmed their nerves and had smoothed out any frazzled hair because of this ordeal they had witnessed. "We're heading towards the Wong Si Desert," Naruto informed the man in charge of the thing. He waited for Azula to give him the okay. She nodded and he left to tend to it. Naruto pulled out the dagger and stared at Mai and Zentrai. "Mai, you'll never win this through that method of playing with him. He has too many layers of clothing and too many weapons for you to win. Even I'd lose to him and I have more luck than he does. The only way for you to win is to beat him in a different game."

"_First person to pass out from drinking too much will lose," _Zentrai said quickly. Naruto said nothing but pocketed the item. Zentrai turned and spoke directly to Mai on this subject. _"We have a drinking contest to see who wins the object of our affection. We'll have Naruto watch us to see who wins. Unless of course you'd rather do something else to see who wins the knife."_

Mai thought about another set of games they could do. She knew a match between skills was out of the question. She knew that strip poker was definitely out of the question. A drinking game seemed more logical to her actually. She'd had a few sips in the past and could hold her own with some of the guards that had protected them during her time at Omashu. But a game where they went until one of them passed out?

She chewed on her lower lip as she nodded. "Alright, but I want Ty Lee to watch as well. She won't have the heart to lie to me no matter what." She stormed off to get ready for this.

Zentrai just smiled. _Too bad for you, because I have an excellent system that can hold its own in all drinking games, _he thought while moving towards his room.

(-)

Naruto had decided to remain in his room for the remainder of the night or until Zentrai came in drunk and would need attending to. With the fight over and his mind in need of being cleared, he started meditating and was brought back to when he was first called that by Lyra. Lyra had given him that nickname and always chose to call him by it for saving her life. He had saved her and she loved him for it. But he never could return the love because he was too hurt inside for her to cure at that point in time. He lost his chance as a result and she fell for another man only to have him leave her and leave her broken inside.

But she had called him that because she had loved him and because he had saved her from death. He staved off death for her and saved her from the darkness. She still called him that even though the name had lost its original meaning.

_Lyra, I was never an angel. I'm still not an angel. I never will be. I won't be anything but a monster, _he thought. His thoughts turned to Lyra and he kicked himself for never acting on his chance to be with her. But it had sparked a sort of relationship that he had never thought he'd have with anyone else. To her, he was her younger brother and her for him. With Zentrai they had formed a little family of their own, once being known as the Three Demon Siblings. But that time was gone now.

But even though she wasn't with him right now, he could always picture her face smiling at him and her words so soft and nurturing to him. _"But you are my angel. You saved me. And one day I'll save you. Even if I my save you from yourself." _He closed his eyes tightly and inhaled deeply before smiling. _"I'm never truly gone, Naruto. We exist in each other's hearts as always."_

He opened his eyes and inhaled through his mouth. "Yes… we are always together."


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin_03 and TheHumanWiki

Chapter 7

Ty Lee woke with a start as her mind flashed back to the fight at the village. It was like a plague right now. She had spent most of the night awake and terrified that Naruto would do her in while she slept. She had already had a dream like that and it terrified her deeply. Even though she rested with the knowledge that he would do her no harm, seeing that power of his had upset her greatly to know he could be so cruel.

She slapped her cheeks to fully wake and sat up in her bed. Her eyes dropped slightly at the sight of the red tapestry that decorated her room. She shivered as a result when she saw that red specter head again. She couldn't get that out of her head.

_I could talk to him about, _she thought. Ty Lee pictured how that conversation would go over. He'd probably mock her ability to see auras and mock her for even trying to explain what she saw. She shook her head. _He wouldn't do that._

She threw the blankets off, swung both legs over the edge of the bed, planted them and stood up. She stretched and looked around. Her eyes narrowed when she noticed a black robe. She knelt down and picked up the garment with her brow furred together. "What's Mai's clothing doing in my room?" She asked out loud.

(-)

Naruto enjoyed pranking people when he was bored. It was a certain tradition that Gen Fu and Lyra once did when they too were bored. They had at first tried to get Naruto into doing it only to learn that he was still doing it from time to time. Swapping clothes and putting them in other rooms were the norm when a prank war had started between the four. Zentrai was usually the one to suffer the most as a result.

Usually Naruto was the victor, but on those few occasions that Zentrai got involved, it was discovered that the quiet and calm teen was very good at pranking people. He played off the fears of others when he did this and was usually crowned as the King of pranks when he did this. Playing off of the fears of others was one thing. Naruto on the other hand, like Lyra, enjoyed trying to stand out and just have fun with it. Gen Fu did simple things that most parents would have done.

And on those extremely rare occasions, Naruto, Lyra, and Zentrai could honestly be called the Prank Gods for what they could cook up when they put their minds to it.

So as Naruto watched from the doorframe of Zentrai's room, he was left wondering just why he limited himself to just one way of helping the mute teen out. Sure he was being nice and the options were very interesting, but Naruto knew he should have promised him more than what he had. It was almost too easy to refuse him after last night's drinking game was done which lead up to this.

Zentrai's room was covered with his clothing, knives, sake bottles, and Shibaru huddling at the end of the bed with her tongue hanging out. She was probably dreaming about chasing some of the wild animals again and hunting them down. Shibaru never did like hunting, but it wasn't about the thrill of the chase, it was just about the meal she got.

And in the bed were Zentrai and Mai, both sleeping soundly and naked as the day they were born. There were no sheets to blanket them or hide their bodies. There were no pillows for either of them to grab to hide their modesty. The only thing there was, was Zentrai's golden pendant he kept as a gift from Rehka. Nothing else covered the two.

Naruto coughed to get their attention. As planned, Mai woke up first. She rubbed her palm in her eyes to clear her vision and yawned with her hair mimicking the tired feeling she had. Her hair was a wreck, like her nerves were about to be. Seeing the blond, she arched a brow and then shrugged. "What are you doing in my room?" She asked darkly. She tried to sound a bit unhappy but failed when she was forced to stifle another yawn.

"I was actually about to ask you why you were in Zentrai's room with Zentrai at the moment," he started. Mai went rigid upon hearing this and suddenly held her head as the hangover kicked in. Naruto continued though. "But I guess after a night of drinking till you both passed out-which Zentrai won by the way-I shouldn't be surprised to see you in his bed. So did you learn anything from this?"

The blond counted down from ten as he watched her turn towards the sleeping mute that she had slept with. When he counted down to zero, she screamed when Zentrai asked, _"Was it as good for you as it was for me?" _She screamed loud and long while jumping up to leave. She collapsed and held her naked ass as she moaned from the pain she felt. _"I had no idea on how hard you could take, Tina. I honestly thought that you were going to be angry with me when I couldn't do it as hard as you wanted me to." _

Mai disregarded the fact he got her name wrong as she slowly got back to her feet. "You are so… ugg!" She couldn't find the right words to describe him as she slowly moved out of the room. She slammed the door shut in front of the blond and began the slow journey to her room.

Naruto shook his head and stared down at his left hand. "I guess I put too much pressure on her ass to make it believable, huh?" Zentrai just smiled as he got up. The blond lowered his hand and stuffed it into his pockets as the mute began to get dressed. "We haven't picked up any sign of our target yet, but with them riding on a flying furry creature it shouldn't be that hard to find a trail since it's the beginning of spring."

"_The animal will be shedding." _It wasn't a question. It was a statement. The blond nodded as the telepath pulled his pants up and removed a crick in his neck. _"Good. That should make things easier on us for a while. I'm tired of not knowing what the hell our target is doing. Our spy network hasn't found anything yet."_

The blond nodded and opened the door. "I'll be in the main part of this thing meditating if you need me. I'm sure it won't be that hard to find me. Azula will probably be trying to seduce me or probe me for answers."

"_What kind of probing you think she'll try?" _Naruto slammed the door in his face and walked away shaking his head. _"What'd I say?" _He laughed mentally.

(-)

Azula remained in bed. Her legs were cross, her eyes closed, and her hands resting on her knees in a meditating stance. She needed to clear her mind. She had too much in it as of late and it was all consisting to the teen and his powers. She needed to clear her mind to fill it with important stuff about him.

_Go over the basics, _she recited in her mind.

Azula took a calming breath and opened her eyes for only the briefest of moments before closing them.

Her mind was now clear.

_His power lasts for fifteen to twenty minutes. _She remembered her father's explanation on the teen. _His strength is unsurpassable. His speed is beyond human capabilities and is too fast for regular people to follow. His endurance is higher than normal, meaning his stamina is the same. He can make copies of himself that can be destroyed easily, transform into girls, and can stick to walls and walk on water._ She chewed on her lower lip. That wasn't a lot of good to her right now. She pressed deeper into her mind for answers.

She played back all the things she could remember about the teen. She might not have ever acted like it, but she did have a pretty good memory. She didn't have a photographic memory, but she could remember stuff easily if she put her mind to it.

She felt her breathing elevate and quickly calmed it down to help with her problem. Once it was settled she continued to rack her brain for something she could use over the teen. But that in itself was a task better set to someone that was more skilled than her in this area. Naruto left very little openings for her to work with. He kept to himself when they weren't out trying to gather information or picking up the trail of their target.

_I can't use Zentrai against him. _Her hand twitched and rose to grab the side of her head. She scratched at the side of her head, her eyes still closed at the moment. _It's like he's getting four moves to my one at the moment. I have to turn this around. I have to find a way to convince him to join the Fire Nation or hold something over him to force him into joining. _Her eyes opened and she lost her concentration. He wasn't even in the room and he was getting to her.

"I need a third-party involved in this," she murmured.

(-)

The early mornings were always great for Naruto. He enjoyed watching the sun rise when he could and enjoyed smelling and breathing in the morning air that was still damp with moisture from the cold nights. He enjoyed the feeling of wet and soft grass beneath his feet. It brought back memories of his time in Konoha and his time with Gen Fu. Naruto had say that if there was one place he liked the most about this world it would be the mountain regions where the grass was often replaced by thick forests that shielded the ground from the deadly rays of the sun. It reminded him so much of his home that he made it his duty to build a home out here just for his memories sake.

But right now he wasn't outside to enjoy any of this.

Naruto picked up a bundle of white fur and stared at it for a while.

"Did you find something?" Ty Lee inquired. Naruto stiffened slightly before rising to his feet. He had been too caught up in his find and trying to uncover which direction it had gone to notice the acrobat. She didn't catch his mistake and practically jumped to his side to look at the clump of fur in his hand. "What's that?"

"I think it's the fur of the animal are target was riding," Naruto explained. He stuffed the clump in his pockets and went back to looking around. Ty Lee watched him with hope filled eyes as he started moving towards a thick forest. More fur coated the tree branches, but the teen wasn't convinced. Jumping up onto the canopy of the forest, he looked around and watched as a single dot floated across the horizon. _Gotcha, _he thought.

The teen assassin dropped out of the trees and next to Ty Lee. "We're heading in the right direction. Thanks to the creature's fur we'll be lead right to them." He explained carefully. Ty Lee smiled at his knowledge on this. Naruto noted her smile and furrowed his brows together. "Why are you still standing here and smiling at me?"

Ty Lee stopped smiling for a brief moment and then continued while saying, "I'm just happy you're finding the target! I'm sure that we would have found him eventually."

"But why are you standing near me? Are you…" He clamped his mouth shut and eyed her strangely. "Aren't you scared to be around me? Usually people don't wanna be around me when I use that power. Why are you still standing at my side and smiling no less?" She opened her mouth and then shut it. "Just forget about it. I'm sure you have your reasons and I'm just not used to having people wanna be around me after something like that."

The blond walked towards the metal beast that they had been using and jumped inside. Ty Lee waited a few seconds before scowling at herself. _I should have asked him about that specter I saw! I had my chance! _She mentally kicked herself. It was painful to not know what that thing was. And that wasn't even the main thing she wanted to talk to him about. She wanted to know why he had two auras. She had barely noticed it during the confusion, but after watching the entire fight again through her dreams she had been able to take notice that he had in fact had two auras.

The first aura was the main one. It had been blood red and had generated the specter head she'd seen. Just thinking about that thing sent shivers down her spine. That thing was hardly human or anything that someone could generate through a normal aura. Naruto clearly wasn't normal if he could do that. But the second aura was a confusion one. The first was blood thirsty and she felt only hatred and destruction radiating from it. The second one was calm and peaceful, as if what was happening was actually natural.

Ty Lee knew that it was possible for people to possess two auras of the same kind to a degree, but these two were completely different. If she had to guess, there was possibly even a third involved it.

She shook her head to clear the images of the men Naruto had beaten and broken as she hurriedly jumped into their transportation. She didn't want to think about it anymore than what she had to. Talking with Naruto would be the only way to get the answers she needed.

(-)

Naruto needed to speak with Azula. The man in charge of this thing wasn't listening to him. If this was his idea of standing up to him, he was doing a horrible job. He kept stuttering and stating that beaten two methods of death, he'd rather die by his hand before he betrayed her rather than being ordered by him. So the blond was forced to hunt down Azula. She wasn't in her Palin King at the moment which left only one location.

The blond stormed up to her door and kicked it open. Azula hastily rose to her feet, a thin sheet rising to cover her naked body. _She ordered him to refuse my orders just so she could try to seduce me again? _The blond took a calming breath and walked up to her. Azula looked cold and helpless as he stopped right in front of her. Her hands began to shake and she dropped the thin cloth, revealing her gorgeous body. Not a scar on her delicate flesh.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Naruto noted that she tried to sound embarrassed and angry at the same time. She was failing horribly. Naruto had yet to see a girl that could be embarrassed and angry at the same time.

"Why won't the man running this take orders from me now? You revoked my right to do my job. Is there a reason for this?" The Fire Princess rolled her eyes and turned to grab some of her clothes. The blond growled as he grabbed her throat and placed her against the wall. "Answer me now, woman!"

"My name is…" She yelped in pain as Naruto reeled back and slammed her body into the metal wall. All her fire was lost in that moment. She knew that controlling him was like trying to control a volcano. You could only do so much when a volcano erupted, but you could never win in a battle against them. A true victory over a volcano would be described as stopping it from erupting. And like a volcano, Naruto couldn't be stopped or even reasoned with when angered.

The blond, now angry with her actions and way of treating him, threw himself to her door, his hand still wrapped around her neck tightly. She yelped in surprise to being hauled off like this. She recalled that her mother only had the courage to do this sort of thing.

She tried scream at him, to Firebend at him, to kick and wail and punch and claw. But she could do nothing. It was as if his hands had the power to suck away her will power and resolve, reducing her to a helpless child.

He kicked opened the metal door that led to the man who ran the machine. He yelped in surprise, his fear overwhelming him at the moment. Before he could take notice of the state of his princess he was on his knees with his head down. "Princess Azula," he stumbled over his words. His head raised and a deep frown spread across his face. Naruto made sure to lock eyes with the man. The man backed down before he had a chance to even stand up for his princess. "What can I do for you?"

Naruto gripped Azula's neck a little tighter. He never noticed it, but her neck was rather thin and elegant, like a swan from Konoha. "We're to head threw the forest," he said sternly. The man looked to Azula now. Naruto's grip tightened and she caught the message. She said what he said and then some when Naruto said, "But tread lightly. Our prey will be aware of us with the smoke this thing generates. We need to stay silent and fast, less our prey escapes us." Azula spoke every word with menace and hatred, all of which seemed directed at the man rather than Naruto.

The man nodded and hastily began getting things in motion.

The blond assassin turned and walked off, Azula's neck still in his grasp. "Don't even think about it," he snapped suddenly. The Fire Princess paused and was yanked back to him as a result. "I know you were about to Firebend at me. I'd prefer you did not." She opened her mouth to speak but something cold and metallic and pointy touched her throat. "They will be aware of us no matter what we do. We're going to chase them until they are too tired to fight. My goal is to capture our target alive. The others we'll be left alone and alive. If you even think of burning them, I will peel back your skin, break all of your bones, and send you back to your nation."

He released her one they got to her room. He made sure to throw her for added affect.

"Don't even think of getting in my way, Azula. It will be the end of you if you do." He slammed the door shut and stormed off.

(-)

For the remainder of the day Naruto had locked himself in his room with Zentrai to discuss plans for how they would take down their target and the safest way for his health. Like Naruto had predicted they were alerted to the smoke and the rumbling of the giant machine. After a quick assessment of their situation, Naruto realized that in order to catch them they'd have to outlast them.

But understanding what they had was the mystery that both assassins were having at the moment. After careful consideration, Naruto came to the conclusion that their target might be an Airbender. Though he had no proof, the fact that they were given this mission under the orders of "No questions asked" still rang out in his mind. Why would anyone give a mission to them like this under that pretense? Understanding their target, how they lived, breathed, ate, slept, and work was how they worked. They needed to know their target before striking on a mission like this.

The blond knew that Azula would shed no light on this. If she did anything now it would be that she wanted to give misleading information and kill them. He couldn't picture her working for them to complete this mission.

And then there was the fact that he had tried to rescue Bumi. That clung to the back of both of their minds. Sure they could have used Bumi for anything they had planned, but why would he willingly turn himself back over to the Fire Nation? Naruto for one couldn't understand that. Bumi could do some crazy things, but that was one of the wackiest things he'd done so far since Naruto knew him.

And after their second encounter with their target and watching him fly away, Naruto was certain that outlasting them would be the only way.

He didn't know how, but somehow they could actually feel them coming. It was like they had a sixth sense or something close to it. The blond had heard of people gaining new senses or heightened senses due to a handicap they had. If the Earthbender they had really was blind and Toph Be Fong, then it could be understandable that she had some sort of Earthbending ability that allowed her to sense them through vibrations.

Now that they were close to having them corner on rocky terrain, the blond was left wondering just what they'd do when they captured their target. Azula would probably betray them and attempt to kill their target's companions despite Naruto's warnings to her.

"You're not going to take one of them?" Ty Lee's question jarred Naruto from his train of thought. He wasn't even aware she had been right in front of him. Seeing that he was a little confused, she motioned to the giant lizard creature she had saddled. "We need to get to them fast! We're going to ride these guys right up to them!" She began petting the nose of the beast.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I think I'm okay on foot." He shot Rai a warning glare when he noticed him trying to snatch a bite of one's tail. Rai backed off whimpering and the blond shook his head. "You can eat the giant beast they have, Rai. I'm sure that will fill you up for a few hours."

Naruto's statement had Mai fumbling with one of her weapons. "Have you seen that thing?" Naruto slowly nodded. She looked to Rai and then to Shibaru. Both of them did have monstrous appetites. She sat back down in the saddle and shook her head slightly. "Forget I said anything," she ordered. She shifted slightly in the saddle, showing her obvious discomfort.

"_Does your ass still hurt?" _Zentrai's mental voice filtered into her mind only. She went rigid as a result and shot him a hostile glare. He smiled at it. He, like Naruto, wasn't going to take one of the offered animals. In fact, he wasn't even going to go after their target. Opting to be lazy was a cover though. Naruto wanted him out of the way just in case things got hairy. He didn't need him trying to kill their target.

"Shut up," she lashed out. The mute raised his hands and smiled softly. "Naruto, why is he staying in here instead of helping us?" Azula perked up when she heard that.

The blond took a deep breath. "I need Zentrai out of the way in case something goes down that shouldn't. He has a knack for forgetting things and could randomly kill our target. And I'd very much like for that not to happen. Not that I'm greedy or anything. But the reason I want our target is alive is because I'd rather not kill if I can avoid it."

"Why not just kill the target and be done with it?"

"Killing isn't everything, Mai. Sometimes saving lives is the job of an assassin. Just because we're assassins doesn't mean we don't know how to show compassion and mercy. I for one would rather like to avoid violence and death when possible."

"_And I'm a pacifist! I don't like killing people at all!" _Zentrai's words had the team of girls arching eye brows and sending him strange glares. As if to make it stranger, Zentrai even held the head of a dead Firebender, no doubt another "Target" that they were required to kill for another nation.

Naruto shook his head at Zentrai's antics. He was only doing them for the joy of playing dumb now. But there was a reason for why he was doing this and staying out of the fight. Zentrai was good at reading people and his range was limited to a set distance of about a two hundred meters. Not nearly as far as Naruto might have liked, but that was the set distance if he knew you and your mental imprint you had. If he didn't know you and had never looked into your mind or even spoke to you that range dwindled down to roughly twenty or thirty meters.

Zentrai's job would be to read their minds and learn everything he could from them during this brief window of opportunity. It was their one chance to understand their target. If he got anything from reading his mind, Naruto would instantly be made aware and he would adjust accordingly. The only problem was that they no longer had the element of surprise and from the way Zentrai was acting, reading their minds seem less likely anyhow.

The metal beast came to a screeching halt and the compartment hissed with activity. Zentrai was off to the side now and assuming his lotus position so he could start reading their minds. When the hatch opened, the three mounted lizards stormed out like children ready to play in the dirt. After being cooped up for a long time they needed to run around and stretch their limbs out.

Naruto strolled out with both hands resting over his chest. From where he was he could easily spot them now. Two girls and two boys, all of them looking to be preteens if not teens already. Their target was easy to spot out. He carried only a staff as a weapon. He wore monk robes like in the image they had of him. The other two were easily Water Tribe people with their dark skin and ocean blue eyes. Judging from their stances, the female was a Waterbender and the boy was a warrior, not a bender. The other girl had to be Toph Be Fong, the Blind Bandit.

As Naruto surveyed them, they did the same and noted with some dissatisfaction that they not only had them bet in being well rested and feed, but they also had the ability to close the distance between them in a heartbeat.

The Water Tribe warrior turned, said something to the others and began heading for the large white mass of fur that was their ride. The others, minus Toph, turned to follow. Naruto began running straight at them. Azula charged forth with Mai and Ty Lee backing her. Naruto's speed without using his power matched that of their mounts and threatened to remain ahead of them. Toph pumped her fists and stomped the ground.

The earth rose in multiple areas, forming sudden blockades that Naruto easily avoided by jumping over. Azula and her mounts were nimble and slow enough to move around them or over them. Realizing that a battle against them was indeed fruitless, Toph stomped the earth again and raised both arms. The earth rumbled and a large and tall wall formed between them. Mai hurled a few weapons at the girl. Toph sensed them and used her Earthbending to throw her back at the animal as Azula busted through her earth defense with a lightning blast.

Naruto had already stopped before Toph even had a chance to get to safety. He had no qualms with letting them escape. He got what he wanted out of this little challenge.

"_Did you learn anything?" _He asked mentally.

"_Not as much as I'd like to have gotten, but enough to peek your interest."_

Naruto turned and started heading back. Azula scowled and watched the massive creature of fluff fly away. "Aren't you concerned that they'll get away?" She asked darkly. Naruto gave pause and gave her a menacing look. She didn't back down. She had her friends to back her up. They'd band together to end him. His attention turned skyward as he snatched something out of the air. She stared at it and then looked back at the bison that flew off. "It's shedding," she observed.

"We'll follow the trail. Put your mounts up and get ready to head out. Our target will be getting sleepy soon and eventually very vulnerable. We can use that to our advantage." Naruto walked back inside the metallic beast and walked towards the next compartment. Zentrai need not follow. Their mental link was strong and it would seem strange for the two to be standing so close at this point in time. _"Tell me what you know."_

(-)

For the next few hours there was no sight of their quarry. Azula got what Naruto was doing, though she wouldn't admit it to anyone at the moment, she had the same idea in mind. Naruto seemed quite adamant in doing things his way and wouldn't listen to anyone at the moment.

The metal transport came to a stop and the blond dismounted and began climbing into the trees. Rai was with him and sniffing the ground. His large tail wagged as his nose got buried in the dirt. Naruto watched with mild amusement until he stopped and started off in another direction. Clearly something more important had gotten his attention. And not two minutes later did Rai return with a dead animal that was too mangled to be identified.

The blond smirked when Azula looked annoyed with the animal. He was happy she was annoyed. It made him happy.

"What are you doing," She snapped.

"Rai needed to go to the bathroom and we need to find their trail again," Naruto answered. Azula rolled her eyes and watched him continue his search for their target. _"She's getting on my nerves now." _He said mentally.

"_She's trying to figure out a way to kill you," _Zentrai replied with a wave of humor filtering into Naruto's mind. The blond smiled at the feeling it had. _"But the creature was a Flying Bison. That much I can confirm with a hundred percent. Its name is Appa and its master, our target, is Aang. I don't think he's an Airbender, but I'm not positive. He wasn't thinking straight from being tired and shocked by our arrival."_

"_What about the two Water Tribe people? Who were they?"_

"_The girl was Katara, a Waterbender and possibly a prodigy from what thoughts she had running through her mind. She seems to be his instructor, meaning he could still be the Avatar." _The blond groaned mentally but made no attempt to stop his friend. _"The boy is Sokka, a Water Tribe Warrior. His father is Hakoda of the Water Tribe. The two are siblings with Sokka being the oldest. His father left him behind at the South Pole to watch over their tribe while he went off to fight in the war with the other men of their tribe."_

"_That seems retarded." _

"_Retarded or not, they've pushed back dozens of Fire Nation attackers and thwarted dozens more. Hakoda isn't a pushover. He's smart and thinks outside the box. He's like that one friend you had. Shikamaru Nara. He's probably not as smart as him, but Hakoda does have a certain way of thinking that is better than most. Not to mention he's got his son's sense of humor." _

Naruto could see the smile on Zentrai's face at that.

"_As for the female Earthbender, it is in fact Toph Be Fong. She ran away from her family to help do her part in ending the war. She's also not used to working with others. That's probably going to be their downfall since none of them are used to her yet. She's a bit like Den. Thinks she only has to carry her own weight. Fights all her battle on her own. That sort of thing."_

"_Right… We'll turn in. Rai just found their trail and is pointing me towards the desert again. They're heading out but they should be getting slower. If at anything, this will make our job easier now that we know two things aren't going their way at the moment." _Naruto scratched his head and turned back to Azula. "We're heading out. Rai's found our target."

Naruto walked past her as she continued to stare off into the distance.

"There's a lake a few miles that way," she said quietly. Naruto paused and considered that. "If they aren't already aware of it, they might start washing the Bison the clean of its old coat of fur. We should expect them to be well aware of it though. They should be aware of it anyways given that it's Spring and this is the time when animals that are hibernating come out and other animals shed their overcoat."

Naruto stared her down. "I'm well aware of what Spring is, Azula." He continued walking. "Alert the engineer to head out. We'll follow the river and see if your theory holds water."

Azula glared at him and did as she was told. She didn't want another session like earlier to happen again.

(-)

Three hours traveling down river lead them to a patch of earth where the ground turned white and the river ran with clumps of soggy wet fur. Azula's theory held water and Naruto showed no signs of remorse for her quick thinking. But he wouldn't have cared either way. Rai would have led them here and they would have captured them had they not been forced to ride the metal beast.

While Ty Lee tried to figure out what the lumps of fur should be called, Naruto and Azula started walking around their surroundings, trying to get a feel for where they might have wondered off to. The two glanced around for a moment until Naruto noted that a trail of the Bison's fur took off in one direction, which Mai clearly moved in on. Naruto ignored her and turned his attention in another direction. Tree tops were broken in the opposite direction.

"The Bison has flown off that way. Mai, Ty Lee, keep your eyes opened for it." Azula snapped off orders to her charges. They mounted their rides and Azula looked to the trail of fur. "I trust you'll be heading with me to get your target?"

"Just try to keep up." Naruto snapped off.

Zentrai got on Shibaru while the blond and Rai took to the trees.

For hours they rode in silence, Naruto taking point in the tree with Rai at his side. Azula didn't say anything. She dared not even try to think about anything either. She was so close to victory that she could smell it. She would do what her brother could not. She would capture the Avatar and snag the strongest assassin in the world as a result. She knew things were bad between them but she hoped to remedy that with this fight. She could put all her past grudges with the teen aside if they did this right.

She stilled her breathing as anticipation began to overwhelm her. Azula could taste victory even now with the sun setting and the air dry from the heat. She would make her father proud. She would make the Fire Nation proud. And should he chose to deny the offer she handed him, she'd put him down.

She stiffened slightly. Taking him down seemed more of a hassle than what it would be worth. She'd have to hold something over his head or tempt him with something to possibly forgo a fight. A fight with Naruto would end in only one way: With her death.

She reflectively gripped her leg with one hand and began to lose control of her breathing as her mind was flooded with the images of his power. She couldn't follow his speed when he used it. She couldn't believe his strength. How could anyone handle him? How did Iroh even stand up to him? Sure her uncle was strong, smart, and fast in his prime, but four years ago he was still hefty, still slow. So how did he manage his own against something that couldn't be stopped?

This broke her memory relapse for a brief moment before fear and pain overcame it. Her feelings from that fight broke through all the barriers of her mind. She had a moment where she wished to just crawl in bed and forget all of this. It was a promising illusion that bore only death or banishment in the end at the hands of her father.

She shook her head to clear the thoughts. Negative thinking now would only dull her senses and her smarts. That was all she needed. She just needed to outsmart him and lure him to their side. He had to have a weakness. He had to have some sort of an attachment to someone or something that wasn't strong like him. He had to. Everyone had something that was precious to them that was weak and hadn't the power to defend themselves.

She tried not to think on. She did. Zentrai had to be probing her mind at the moment. She sent him a hostile glance. He was ahead of her. She glared at the back of his head for being ahead of her and for probing her mind. She didn't like him. She didn't like how he worked. She didn't like anything about him. Once Naruto joined their side and had been forced to work for them she'd have him kill Zentrai for being the way he was.

She was so caught up in the moment that she hadn't noticed Naruto moving beside her on the ground. He was running right beside her mount. "Are you okay?" She turned a harsh glare his way and gritted her teeth. Naruto noticed that it was on instinct and thus said nothing. "You should try to stay out of our way when we corner our target. Although we plan on capturing him alive, we can't have you in our way. Zentrai might have to get involved and could lose all sense of his self and kill you as a result."

Her glare softened. He was worried about her? "Thanks for the heads up."

"Don't think too much on it. I'm only telling you this because Ty Lee would have a fit over it. She really sees you as her friend. I'd hate for her to shed tears over your death just yet." The blond moved back into the trees and vanished in their shadows.

She blinked for a moment. Ty Lee? She'd shed tears over her death? She scoffed at that for a moment before she realized something else. He cared for Ty Lee. Maybe he didn't love her, but he cared enough about her to wanna protect her. He even did it during Zentrai and Mai's Strip Poker game. He told her not to play. He clearly cared for her as an older brother of some sort. Surely she could use her over the teen? That's what friends were. They were just people you used to get somewhere in life.

She had a game plan now. She knew what to do.

(-)

The sun had begun to sink behind the mountains, turning the sky into a sea of flames. Orange, red and yellow lit up the sky as the sun sank in the sky. The three teens approached an abandoned village. Naruto and Zentrai remembered the village. The village was one that Gen Fu had brought them here to train and before they began heading up the mountains. Naruto smiled as he remembered the good times from the village.

Once a beautiful settlement was now nothing more than ghost village with burned homes, broken shops, and dust covered streets. Even the dead tumbleweeds seemed to have died if that was even possible.

The three walked into the village with Naruto taking point. Azula was behind her, her eyes glued to his form. She watched his arms sway as he walked. She was close. Their target was right there sitting down and waiting for them. Naruto would capture him and end the chase. She would have her assassin and her father would praise her as a hero. She began to soak in the glory of what was to come as they came to a stop.

"You sit and wait for us," Naruto asked curiously. Aang got to his feet, his wooden staff in hand. Naruto looked to Zentrai and gave him a nod. The teen backed off and got beside Azula's beast with Rai and Shibaru waiting for the order to pounce. "You're very brave. You led us this way to keep us from getting your comrades. A valiant effort but a futile one."

"What are you talking about?"

"Two of her comrades went chasing after your friends. I doubt they'll kill them, but they might have them beat already and could be on their way back already." Aang narrowed his eyes. Naruto noted that his stance was wobbly but was still determined to fight. "You're tired. You have nowhere to run that I won't find. Give up. I don't wanna kill you, but I will if I have to. Stand down and come peacefully. I promise you're friends will be spared."

"What good is the word of a Fire Nation soldier?"

"I'm not a Fire Nation soldier. I'm an assassin hired by the Fire Nation to capture or kill you. I'm to bring you to Fire Lord Ozai to get my money. After that I have no idea what they'll do to you. For all I know they'll make an example of you. Or worse…" Aang gulped as a result. Naruto took a step forward. "Stand down. This will only end badly."

"I can't. I have a job to do."

Azula grew tired of this and stepped forward. "Do you really want to fight us?"

An animal cry sounded and a teen appeared. His hand grabbed the crown of his straw hat as he tossed it aside. Short cut hair, a burn mark on the left side of his face, and beaten up clothing. It was Zuko of the Fire Nation. Naruto growled in the back of his throat. He wasn't counting on this.

"Yes," Zuko declared with anger in his voice. He tossed the hat aside. "I really do."

Azula crossed her arms, a sly grin playing on her features. "I was wondering when you'd show up, Zu Zu."

Aang tried to suppress his laughter at the nickname. "Zu Zu," he repeated.

Zuko snapped into his fighting stance. "Back off, Azula! He's mine!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Azula," the blond snapped. She seemed to snap to attention at the sound of his voice. "Deal with your brother. Our target is our own. I will handle him. But do not kill your brother. Shedding family blood is not the right or honorable thing to do." He ordered.

Azula rolled her eyes but nodded. She'd kill her brother if she got the chance to make it look like an accident. This was a showdown that was meant to be. She would take his life, become an only child, and then be in place to assume the throne. Her life would be complete.

Before Zuko could mount a retort, Naruto slipped by him and engaged Aang. Aang was slow to react and quickly turned tail to run. Naruto was on him before him could get his glider up in the air. Forcing into fighting, Aang swung his staff for his head. In close range his Airbending would do little good if he couldn't get his target in front of him.

Naruto ducked under the swing and slammed an open palm into his left shoulder. The teen spun, swung, and missed again. He was aiming to knock the assassin out, not kill him. Naruto noted his style of fighting and confirmed it with Zentrai. The teen was trying to avoid as much bodily harm to him as possible. Naruto moved in, attacking hard and faster as he forced the teen into a defensive fight. The blond lashed out with mighty punches that left Aang with little time to dodge or redirect.

Naruto forced Aang to fight by his terms and take the path he wanted him to take. He drove him back, pushing him deeper into the small village and constricting him with the small alleyways. He'd be unable to use his staff.

Aang took a half step back and then lashed back with a palm thrust that twisted like a punch. Naruto moved to the side. He dodged the punch and felt the tickle of wind at his throat. _Is he Airbending, _he wondered. Aang tried it again, but again the blond moved too fast for anything to connect. This time Naruto felt nothing. He mulled it over and waited for Zentrai to give him an analysis on the fight. He was good at that. Reading minds had its advantages.

Aang began to panic and turned tail to run again. Again Naruto got in front of him before he could get too far and forced him back into a fight. The blond struck him hard in the left knee with a simple kick. Aang stumbled back grumbling from the pain and assumed his fighting stance. Naruto noted the stance and looked briefly to where Zentrai was located. Ending the fight now would be hard. The kid was determined to win if not just survive.

The older teen took a deep breath and assumed his stance as well. "You're determined to fight me," Aang observed.

"Money is money. Whether this ends with it being blood money is up to you. I'd rather not kill you if I had a choice. But since I don't want to kill you and damaging you could bring harm to your health I have to restrict myself." Aang noticed his stance soften and his guard slip. "I'd rather not take your life because I don't have it in my to kill someone that's truly causing grief for the Fire Nation like you are. They're all in panic at the moment."

"You said you don't work for them."

"I don't personally. I'm just a mercenary. I go where the money is." Naruto watched Aang tighten his stance up. "A fight with me will end in only way, Aang. I will destroy you in one move if I were to take this serious. The fact I'm holding back should be proof that I've not the resolve to kill you."

"Then why won't you let me go?"

"Any chance I have of getting closer to the Fire Nation to do my job I'll take." Aang softened for a moment. Naruto's left eye blinked. Aang never saw it coming.

A hail of blades rained down and pinned him to the ground. He grunted and tried to move. Zentrai slammed down beside him, one foot planted on his back. Aang tried to stand but found the task too much of a burden. His body was leaded to the ground from being exhausted and from the weight that was Zentrai. He grunted again and again as he tried to rise to his feet. Zentrai was too heavy to do such a thing.

Clapping sounded and Naruto turned slightly. Azula was in the alleyway. "Well done," she applauded. Naruto readied his blades. He figured on her betraying them at this point. They had their target but she wanted it all the same. Her smile grew. It was a creepy smile. "You've done our nation a huge favor. When we return we will have the money for you. Father will be pleased." The blond shifted as Zentrai started probing her mind.

Naruto looked down at the kid. "Your father was paying us rather well to capture a kid. Why?"

"You mean you can't figure it out on your own?" Three blades appeared between his fingers. Azula straightened up and lost her joyful tone. "Father sent you after the Avatar to test you to see if your legend was real." Naruto glanced back down at the teen and hid his shock. Azula noted it and smiled. "Yes. You bested the Avatar. Our nation will rejoice when they learn of his defeat at your hands. You legend will grow. Father has even prepared a place for you in his army for this. You will be welcomed into the Fire Nation for your efforts in ending this war."

Zentrai snarled mentally and sent Naruto his anger. The blond shuddered for a moment. "Your father wants to end the war? I thought he wanted to conquer the other nations. He'll end it just because I have the Avatar now?"

She shook her head. "No. Father will continue the war until he's captured the other nations. Thank about it. Your glory. Your honor. Your name will be written in history books as the man who defeated the Avatar and conquered the rest of the world. With your power leading the way we can end it all. None of the other nations will have the power to stop us. Think of the money you will make. Think of the honor you will have."

"I don't care for honor." Naruto shifted slightly. "But why did you father have me challenge the Avatar?"

She rolled her eyes. "Zu Zu was failing to capture him with Iroh. Both of them are traitors and whether you tell me to or not, Zuko and Iroh will both die. Maybe not by hands. But they will surely die in the end." Naruto growled from the back of his throat. Azula took a step forward. "It's time to leave. We have to head home now and let father…" Naruto knelt down and pressed one of his blades next to Aang's throat. "What are you doing?"

"If I kill him the Fire Nation will have to start the search all over again." She bared her teeth. "I never gave you an answer anyways. You only assumed I'd join because of what you promised."

"Is what we're offering so bad that you don't want it? Think of everything you'll have. Servants. A royal family to which you can pass on your bloodline. Everything and anything you ever wanted will be yours for the taking. You will be father's right hand man in the end. And you'll be my right hand man." She paused to gauge his reaction. Naruto had none. "You could be with Ty Lee." She tempted fate.

Naruto chuckled. "You think you can throw your friends around like that? Do you think she wants to be with me? Do you think I want to be with her?"

"Mai?"

Naruto shook his head.

"Would you like a harem? I can get any number of girls for you. Name your price and I'll gladly see to it that it's paid for."

"You just don't get it. You're throwing things around that you can't afford. You think of bloodlines and family like it's nothing but animals to breed. You toss your friends to people you think are strong to increase your respect and honor while boosting your ego. You have no attachments to what makes people want to be together. People aren't animals to breed or throw away. We are things that love and hate and feel like even you, Azula. You're throwing your friends at me because you think I'd be tempted to join on the idea that I want power. I want anything but power."

"What is it that you want then?" She grew tired of this.

Naruto looked her dead in the eye and said, "Peace and love." She gawked. Aang stopped struggling to look up at the teen as he continued. "For too long I've fought battle after battle. I wasn't born to fight for money. I was born through the act of love and happiness. Since the day I was born I have fought my own battles and those of the world. I'm tired of fighting. I wield my powers for only those who need my protection. The Fire Nation doesn't need my protection, Azula. I only started taking their jobs because I was trying to get close to your father to kill him and end this war."

"What?"

"Think about it Azula. Why do you think I've put up with you? Why do you think I wanted to kill you so badly that I actually dreamed of it?" Her eyes were suddenly drawn to Zuko who lay prone on the ground. He wasn't dead just knocked out at the moment. Naruto noticed her gaze and smiled. "If I killed your father and then his two children there would be no true leader for the Fire Nation. They would be in disarray until a new leader was found. Do you know who they'd pick in the end?"

She hissed the name of her uncle through her clinched teeth. Naruto nodded and gave a nod to Zentrai as he looked around. The Magnetism-Bender pulled his weapons out of Aang's clothing to release him.

Aang snapped to his feet and looked at him. "I said I'd kill you if I felt like it, Azula. Truth be told, I'm not feeling like I need your head at the moment. Maybe through suffering and biting off a piece of your pride and ego will make you aware of just how the world thinks of you and your so called Great Nation." Naruto turned on his heels and started walking. "We're leaving, Zentrai. We have somewhere to be now."

The two departed with Azula snarling and staring at Aang. "You're still trapped," she snapped. The ground shifted beneath her feet and dropped her cold. Toph was behind her.

"I thought you could use a hand." She offered with a big smile.

(-)

Naruto observed the one-way fight from his perch on the cliff that overlooked the ghost village. By the time it would be over, Azula would either be dead or forced to flee. Her pride would keep her fighting, but her tactical mind would force her to flee. And when she would turn to flee she would be forced to walk. Under Naruto's orders her mount was killed by Shibaru and Rai, both of which had used impressive strength to haul the beast up the cliff to feast on.

"_She was being honest," _Zentrai sent to him as he turned away from the fight. Naruto chewed on a piece of wheat. _"She really wanted you to join the Fire Nation. But her first orders would have been for you to kill me to show that you were determined to join. What she would have failed to realize is that I can vanish just as easily as we made Lyra vanish."_

"Making you vanish before her eyes would have been easy. Getting her not to mutilate your corpse would have been another," the blond answered with a wave of his hand. He inhaled deeply and tossed the piece of wheat away. "Jet would have laughed to have seen me doing that. I made fun of him for doing it all the time. And now I was doing it."

"_Jet would have probably slapped you on the back and said nothing else. He was a good person. I miss him. We should try to find him and pay him a visit if we get a chance."_

"I doubt we'll have much of a chance too now that we know Aang is the Avatar. Our duty as assassins and members of The Order of the White Lotus will keep us from leaving him be… We'll be forced to watch over him until the Fire Nation has been brought down." Naruto got to his feet and dusted his behind off. "I'll head out to find our closest contact and let them know that our target was in fact the Avatar."

"_I'm going to stick around and wait for things to calm down. I wanna make sure that he survives this fight." _Naruto shrugged his shoulders and began heading east. As soon as the teen was out of sight with Rai nipping as his heels did Zentrai stand and watch the two parties leave. Iroh had been injured during the fight and would need medical treatment for his burns. He'd heal in time and Zuko could probably mend them enough on his own.

Zentrai stayed around for a couple of days and waited for his one chance to talk with Iroh as Zuko tended to his wounds. Once Zuko had ventured off after Iroh had awakened did he dare to make contact with the man.

"_Iroh," _he sent out.

"…_Zentrai…"_ The teen smiled. _"Zentrai, is that you?" _

"_Yes, General Iroh, it is. It's good to hear you again. I trust you will be alright?" _

"_My wounds will heal." _He groaned mentally and Zentrai found it hard not to laugh. _"I'm getting weak in my old age. I should have seen her attack coming. I am getting too slow."_

"_I doubt that. It was a surprise attack."_

"_And as I told my nephew… That wasn't so surprising." _From his spot he could see Iroh messaging his wound. No doubt he saw him as well. _"Where is Naruto? Is he still doing okay?"_

"_He's alright. He ordered Azula not to kill Zuko. But I believe even with his orders she would have found a way." _He paused greatly and stood up from his cover. _"A storm is coming now that cannot be stopped, Iroh. The wheels are in motion and we have one choice but to follow. Will your nephew do as you believe he will?"_

"_He is still getting used to the changes of this new world. He is learning that the world we have created is not nice or pretty like what the people that live within the wall so of the Fire Nation are told to believe. He doesn't understand that this world is far from happy with us or sees our greatness. He will come to understand in time. Is that why Naruto truly wanted to spare him?"_

"_I cannot speak for him. Naruto is a mystery to even me at times. But he does what he can when he can." _Zentrai turned his back to him and leaned against the tree. Zuko returned bearing some meat and two sticks to hold them on. Iroh started a fire and began cooking them. _"Is there anything you wish for me to pass on to Naruto, General Iroh?"_

"_I am no longer a General of the Fire Nation. But I would like for him to make sure that the Avatar is well protected. He must protect him now that we have found him. I have tried to get into contact with you but have failed to do so because of my nephew. I trusted that in time I would meet up with you. I just wish it wasn't like this."_

"_We'll protect the Avatar, Grand Lotus Iroh. You have my word." _The teen pushed off the tree and began heading for the shadows. Shibaru whimpered slightly and smacked her lips. _"Where we're going Shibaru you'll have all the free food you want. Lyra will be pleased to see you again. As I am sure she will be glad to see her Silent Demon and Red Angel." _Shibaru broke out of her whimpering state and followed with her tail wagging happily.

"_Earthbending Beauty," _she sang in her mind. He laughed mentally and jumped on her back. _"To Earthbending Beauty." _She chanted in her mind as she took off.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin_03 and TheHumanWiki

Chapter 8

After regrouping with Zentrai and Shibaru the two teens had started heading for a remote village that was in the middle of nowhere. It was a small rundown part of the world where only the strong survived. The reason it was considered to be in the middle of nowhere was because of its actual location. The village was located inside a mountain, making it difficult for people to find. Getting in was no problem for either teen. Getting out was the hard part.

The village had no name, as it would draw attention if it had an actual name. People that lived here called the place the No Name Village because of it. While the name was an actual name, no one ever came by to bother the place. It was too difficult to get to and the mountains that it was surrounded by were dangerous to get through. The place, during certain weather conditions, was extremely treacherous to anyone that didn't know how to cross the terrain.

But the village seldom ever got guests or outsides so it was very well secure.

Most of the inhabitants of the village were people that worked as spies, assassins, or mercenaries. All of these people got their orders from one person however.

Naruto and Zentrai stopped before two men wearing clean pressed black robes. In the green light they looked statues. They didn't bother speaking with the two assassins. They gave each other a stiff look, breathed deeply, and Earthbend a door in front of them. Stepping in they followed and did the same to raise the door back up.

The outside was dark and dank, dripping with green light that made the place seem unfriendly and hostile to anyone that might actually find the place. Inside the actual part of the city where all business and homes were located was another story. Flowing rivers turned up by a lake that was located at the heart of the mountains flowed through the straights, forcing people to use the sidewalks and cross bridges to get to other areas. The homes were small but subtle. Each home could support a family of four or five depending on any animals they brought with them. Merchants sold their goods in the market and black market which got more business.

And at the heart of the village stood the thing they had come to see. The Tower of Silence. Naruto smiled on instinct. She undoubtedly knew they were here already and resisted the urge to great them like she always had. The Tower of Silence was the tallest building in the underground village. It rose ten meters into the air and was decorated with statues of men in formal robes. Some bore weapons while others took bending stances. A great many men and women had lived in this place and died for what they believed in.

One of the guards stopped and looked to the two pets. He snapped his fingers and two teens appeared. "Kenta and Zen will take care of your pets, Assassins." He spoke quickly and tightly. Naruto nodded and relinquished his pets to the teens. Shibaru pranced off with Rai whimpering for a meal. The guard motioned for them to continue to the large white and black and gold doors of the building.

Earthbending the doors open they walked in with the two guards staying outside this time around. Naruto breathed in the smell of lilies and ocean. The place always smelt like lilies and the ocean. Jade covered the floor with a tapestry that the two couldn't follow. It had no beginning and no end. Potted plants decorated the area to make it seem more lively and fresh while paintings of great assassins, benders, and mercenaries covered the walls. Naruto could see Gen Fu on one painting with Lyra and himself at his side. Zentrai had his own painting because he hadn't become as great as Naruto because of how he was kept to the side for safety reasons.

The moved swiftly towards the large oak doors and pushed them open. A single man stood in front of them with two katanas in hand. He looked ready for a fight. He charged them and Naruto moved out of the way. Zentrai did the same and laughed when the man caught his mistake. Turning to face them he was hit by the door when Zentrai slammed it shut in his face. The teen was out cold with blood coming out of his nose.

"We should be nicer to him, Zentrai," Naruto said quietly. Zentrai shrugged and watched two women remove the teen as fast as they could. Naruto counted down from three and smiled when he felt the ground shift beneath his feet. Zentrai hit the ceiling, dropped like a stone and was soon bouncing around the room from an incredible display of Earthbending. "It's good to see you again, Lyra. How have you been since last we see of one another?" The teen laughed.

Zentrai slammed into the ground at Naruto's feet and warily got to his feet. _"How come she only hits me and not you?" _He was sent flying back at the door that decided to beat him up.

When the magic stopped, Lyra appeared from a hidden door. She was still as beautiful as the day Naruto had seen her. He kicked himself for never noticing it until it was too late. She wore dark green robes that covered her flesh from view. Her dark hair was done up into a tight ponytail and then wrapped around at the crown of her skull, leaving only two strands of her bangs to cover part of her face from view. She slid across the earth and stopped in front of the blond assassin as Zentrai warily got to his feet.

"It has been a long time, Red Angel," she cooed as she wrapped an arm around his waist. She gave him a gentle hug and turned to the mute telepath. "I'd hug you but we both know where that would lead in your mind, now don't we?" Zentrai said nothing. He'd already gone through enough pain for one day.

She turned move towards the table. Naruto watched the left sleeve dangle. It was how they made her vanish. The person who had hired them to kill Lyra had demanded evidence of her demise. In order to make it believable they had to cut off her left arm at the shoulder. She bore tattoos on her flesh that were one of kind. The artist that had put them on had long since died after putting them on her and no one could copy her work. Having the tattoo on her arm as proof had been enough to confirm that she'd died. The large amounts of blood, though it was mostly animal blood, had also been efficient when they showed the location of her demise. The body had been easy to replace as well. A dead female from the Fire Nation had sufficed and the illusion was complete.

Sitting down her chair behind the large wooden desk, she prompted her head into her one open palm and smiled. "I trust you know that I know why you're here?" Naruto nodded and she Earthbend two stumps for them to sit on. She raised a backing for Naruto while making sure to have Zentrai's uncomfortable. "I understand you recently engaged the Avatar in combat and won. Congratulations on a hollow victory."

"He was tired and not a fully-fledged Avatar. Had he not be so tired he would have thought clearly and might have won," Naruto answered tightly. Business time she wanted answers and no funny business. She accepted the answer and Naruto continued. "His group was tired as well but they managed to stave off Azula. To ensure that they could get some distance between her we had Shibaru and Rai kill her ride and leave her stranded when the fight turned in favor of the Avatar's group."

"And you didn't kill her for what reason?"

Naruto noted the edge her voice. She knew something they didn't.

"I let her go to ensure her suffering. Killing right then would have done us little good in the long run. By the time her head would have reached the nearest Earth Kingdom bounty board it would have been rotten and we wouldn't have been able to identify her head all that well." She rolled her eyes. Naruto leaned forward. "Now tell me what you know."

She straightened up and gave a nod to the shadows. It birthed a single man who opened a door. Amy appeared with burn marks and looking worn out. Her clothing was brand new but the bruises and burns were days old.

Naruto jumped to his feet while Zentrai closed his eyes. He couldn't look directly at her because of his anger. _"Who did this?" _He snapped.

Lyra shifted uneasily in her chair. "A day after you left them the Fire Nation marched into the village and captured all but a few of the girls working at the brothel. Azula had ordered the place to be captured as a backup plan to hold over your head, Naruto. They want you to join their ranks so they can use you to end the war. Amy got away safely because Rehka protected her long enough for her to escape. So far we have learned that they're taking all of the girls to a military base three days travel from here."

Naruto rubbed her arms and gently caressed her back for reassurance. She started to cry in his arms. "Azula ordered it, huh?" Lyra nodded and noted the razor blade edge to his voice. Zentrai paid it no mind. He was too busy staring at a section of the wall and waiting for it to happen. Naruto pushed Amy away and she was soon in the guards' arms. He exploded and his power consumed him. "I'll kill that bitch!" He swung a fist and destroyed the wall. "Lyra," he shouted. "Get us to our weapons! I'm going to kill everyone in my path to rescue them!"

"I thought you might say that." She snapped her fingers and the spot where Zentrai stared opened up. Zentrai was the first inside with Naruto tailing him. Lyra stood up and looked to the guard. Black hair with jade eyes and formal red robes. "Take care of her Den. She needs you now." He nodded and moved her inside the chamber.

She passed weapon rack after weapon rack as she moved through the chamber. Very few knew of the weapon cache inside the Tower of Silence and only a handful of people knew of the secret weapon cache inside the Tower of Silence behind its weapon cache. They were weapons designs solely for those strong enough to wield them without risk of death on their part. She remembered most of the weapons from her time collecting them from people who wanted them stored safely for when they needed them the most.

The most dangerous weapon in the secret weapon cache was a staff that was made from refined iron and steel with a hammer on one end and seven needle blades forming a star at the other end. The blade was made from ground up diamonds and steel. The weapon itself wasn't dangerous unless one tried to learn the Seven Stances of Wu Shu. It was said and proven that anyone who tried to use it for evil intent would not be able to master it. Case in point was that one man lost his thumbs as a result from trying to learn it himself. He failed.

The style didn't require a blade at all actually and under the orders of the orders of Rehka had been ordered to at least try to learn it for all women. All female spies and assassins were at least ordered to attempt to learn. The style was based around women and used for their protection. Lyra had tried and failed to learn it because she didn't want to learn it. Having only one arm had also hindered her ability to press further as well.

She stopped next to the two assassins and placed a hand on the black earth. She took a deep breath and pulled her hand down its length. The rock wall fell into the earth and a green light faded in. The two teens moved in first with Lyra waiting for brief moment. All their weapons were before her now. Each one was dangerous for anyone else to use.

She stepped in and brought the wall back up. "You plan for an assault?" Neither of the two males said anything. _It's happening again, _she realized.

When they got like this is was because of their desire to kill a certain target that had wronged someone they knew and respected. The last time this had happened was when Gen Fu had died. His killer had been a gangster from the Earth Kingdom territories. The village he lived in was run by a mob. Naruto, Lyra, and Zentrai had stormed the place and began their bloody mark on history through this first deed.

During this time Naruto and Zentrai had been overwhelmed with the desire to kill their target. As they hunted him down they became aggressive and fought with one another after argue about who would kill their target first. Lyra, during that time, had been overwhelmed by pain and sadness that they had begun to drift apart. When they got to the village did she snap out of it and rein the two boys in. She alone had killed their target while Naruto and Zentrai put the mob family down for good. It was a day the sands were stained red and a village had vanished under the pale moon light. They had left no survivors.

Naruto reached for throwing knives, shuriken, and two short curved blades that he put on the small of his back. She noted his manner of tearing the weapons from their rack rather than being careful with them. When he finished loading up on his weapons did he reach for his true weapons. Two thick metal gauntlets that ran over the fingers as well with claws that screamed with poison. They were specially made by a man who crafted swords and various for them. Piandao had crafted their weapons for them because they wanted weapons like no other.

Slipping the weapons on, he removed a single plate of metal and removed a black vile. "I'll have no need for the poisons," he whispered to himself. He was careful with the poison at least and set it down in a small wooden case. Inside were dozens more like it and stared at each vile for a brief moment. He shut the lid and belted the case just in case he needed it.

Zentrai was less than pleased with the situation and had removed thousands of blades from their racks. He belted them, slipped them into hidden compartments under his sleeves and pants and then under his clothing and under more clothing and weapon. No doubt by the time he was fully loaded he would weigh close to five hundred pounds with the small weapons. He put thin wire in his pouches and then reached for two large weapons that were weapon racks on their own.

They were as tall as he was and weighed roughly a hundred pounds each. He was planning for an assault when he dawned the two black weapon racks that held a number of blades so alien to most that when viewed seemed impossible to use. They were hollowed out with a long metal bar running up the middle of it. On either side was a slit that would open them and reveal the hidden weapons within them. Zentrai reached around and grabbed the thick leather straps and placed them on his back in an X formation.

Breathing deeply to the added weight, he stood tall and then grunted.

"Are you both ready?" Neither teen said a word as they marched out of the hidden room. Lyra shook her head as she followed. They wanted blood now. And she knew they wouldn't stop until their family was safe and out of Azula's hands.

They left the tower and marched their way to the stable where Shibaru and Rai were eating and drink their hearts content. The arrival of the assassins meant that their meal time was over, but they didn't mind either way. The two teens from before noted the arrival of Lyra and ran off as the large pets got by their master's side. Naruto regained some of his composure and knelt down next to his pet. "We'll be off in a little while, Rai. Rehka and the girls were captured."

Rai began growling as a result while Shibaru began to whimper. Both expressed their concern for the girls through different methods. Rai, like Naruto, was anger and would slay anything in his path to protect the things he loved the most. Shibaru whimpered for the safety of the girls and knew in her heart that a river of blood would soon be shed.

"Do you know the location of the base they'll be taking them to?" Naruto's words caught her off guard. She nodded. He turned away. "I doubt they would take them to one base so close to us. They probably have them on a base farther away that's prepared for them and prepared for us. They think they might have time on their side and could transport them safely to their real stronghold. We'll have to get to the stronghold first before they can get there."

Zentrai glanced to Lyra and she sent him a harsh glare. "If you probe my mind again without my approval, I'll discipline you." He turned his attention to Naruto. "I'm coming with you two to make sure you don't kill each other. A fight between the two of you will end with too much destruction and the White Lotus group can't afford to lose either of you."

Naruto aid nothing but turned towards the teens as they appeared with bags for them. "Food and water for your trip," one of them said. Naruto nodded and placed it gently on Rai's back. Rai gave a cautious sniff before snorted at it. Naruto scratched him behind his horn and he grew into his role. "We trust you will have a safe trip." They said in unison. They bowed and the three teens did the same.

Naruto took point with Lyra taking up the middle. Zentrai, Shibaru, and Rai brought up the rear. As they exited the village and entered daylight, Naruto took a big sniff of the dry air and smiled. "We should head for the closes Fire Nation village and get some answers from the guards. They might know a thing or two about this." Lyra had nothing to say to this and Zentrai merely shuffled the two weapon racks on his back as a silent agreement to this.

(-)

Lee brushed past his comrades and laughed loudly at the joke made by his friend. He was happy after a quick trip to the bar and was feeling very generous and invincible with the women he passed by. Though he lacked real charm while being buzzed, it never dulled his sense of knowing when to back off. After leaving without a girl and a joke made at his expenses, he left the bar in search of his home and a woman to keep him company.

He got to his home without a girl and sighed as he pushed the wooden door open. "It's going to be another month before construction crews can get out here to make this place seem more like home," he muttered. He was tired and shut the door without paying attention. He shuffled to his bed, kicked his shoes off, took his shirt off, and crashed on it. "So sleepy…" he yawned.

"You can sleep when you're dead." Lee jumped up and darkness took him.

Lee awoke hours later with fuzzy vision. He blinked his till they were adjusted and was greeted by the sight of three teens. Neither one of them looked happy at the moment. He tried to move but his hands and legs were shackled to the chair he was in via Earthbending. He also felt cold as well. He tried to Firebend with his hands but failed.

The tallest of the figures stepped forward with a knife and planted it at his throat. The female put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back. "I'll handle this." She said. Kneeling down to his level, she brought her one hand up and covered his face. "Here's the way this works. I ask you a question. You give me an answer. I don't get the answer I like, I've got a problem. And if I've got a problem, you've got a problem. Is that clear?"

"Just don't hurt me! I'm a single parent!" He fought against his restraints.

"Excellent. That's the attitude." She stood up and began flexing her hand. "Have there been any female prisoners that were taken through this area?"

"Yes." He licked his lips. She noted it but didn't make a move on it. "A few days ago a Fire Nation battalion moved through here with a large number of girls being hauled off in chains. They moved them to the base a few miles from here. They said they had to take them to the stronghold at the edge of the Earth Kingdom. Rumor has it that a large force has been sent there for an upcoming battle."

The two men shifted and looked at one another. A hidden conversation took place for sure. The man looked worried again as the first man gave a nod to the girl. She turned back to him with a smile. "You're doing well. Keep telling us more." She cooed. She got back down to his level and slowly began play with his chest. Her fingers were smooth and cool to the touch. "This stronghold you spoke of. What sort of stronghold is it?"

He licked his lips again. "It was first used as a small base before it was attacked a few years ago. It was changed into a large fortified base after it survived three assaults by Earthbenders. After they conquered the neighboring villages they turned it into a prison since they saw no more real use for it. It became a stronghold only a few months ago when Earthbenders tried to retake the land around it. It's extremely fortified and there's no way in or out of it unless you're Fire Nation." He grew confident.

The girl seemed to enjoy his stories and sat down in his lap. "What sort of forces are there now?"

"That's classified. I can't tell you even you threaten me." He stammered. The girl stood up and breathed out a sigh of frustration. She turned and in the moonlight that lit her face put on an innocent look. She looked beautiful. "I'll tell you if you do something for me." He stumbled over his words as his buzz came back. She licked her lips and a small tent began to appear in his pants.

"You first." She sat down on her knees right between his legs and began rubbing his thigh.

He blinked sweat out of his eyes. "Two thousand at most right now. The other battalions will arrive in a week. Rumor has it that they'll be seeing the rest of the transportation of the prisoners until they reach the stronghold. They have a royal figurehead with them to boot. Azula will be traveling with the group. But they have to wait for her at a neighboring village just twenty miles from here. That's all I know." He smiled down at her.

"Are you sure?" He nodded as her hand reached up to his tent in his pants. "Good." She stood up. He gasped and watched her stand.

"But… I thought you were…"

"Oh. I forgot about that." She raised her hand and dropped it. The ceiling caved in on him. He died under a mountain of debris and was crushed on impact.

A day passed before anyone thought to check on Lee. When they found him dead they believed it to be the work of poor maintenance on his home. There would be no proof of the assassins ever being here.

(-)

Naruto, Zentrai, and Lyra moved from village to village, learning more on where the stronghold was actually located. Days went by with each new village turning up more and more. The further in they traveled, the more stubborn the guards became. Though in the end they were all killed in a different manner, they soon began to grow a backbone and not talk. Eventually it became no use to actually capture guards or soldiers and talk with them. They soon had to sneak into a military base to learn the location of the stronghold.

This is what brought them to a small base that had a very high manner of guards. They were waiting for the arrival of a new group of prisoners. The prisoners that were coming weren't the ones that Naruto and his group were after. Sneaking in without killing wasn't a chore like one would think. Finding the information they needed was the chore.

After two hours of searching Zentrai got what they needed and they departed.

After traveling for two days they located the stronghold. The place was built like a fortress. Guard towers lined every blind spot in and outside of the place. It stood fifty or eighty meters tall with guards walking the higher levels in pairs of three. Mounted turrets and war engines were easily spotted on the ceiling as well. The place was practically a castle with its metal walls; ten meter river of water encircled the thing, cutting it off from actual land unless they lowered their metal bridge.

To make things worse the place also had the Fire Nation tanks on the small bit of land next to its metal walls where they could. The place was a fortress in its own right and a stronghold that had stood up against dozens of Earthbending attacks. To the Fire Nation, this was their version of Ba Sing Si.

Naruto crept back down from his vantage point and looked back at the two. Zentrai probed his mind and then sent everything he found inside the teen's mind to her. She recoiled briefly and then shook her head. "We can't take down the fortress with a frontal assault," she observed as she went over the information in her mind.

Naruto took another look and then lowered himself back to their small camp. No fire would be allowed for the night. Fire Nation soldiers would spot the flames and the glow and move in on them. They couldn't risk it.

"A place that big must have a sewage system," he said simply. Zentrai closed his eyes and began probing the minds of the guards for information. He gave a nod after a brief moment. Naruto let him send the information to him and then smiled. "The way in is under the water. We'll have to move in during dawn when the sun is rising. It should blind the guards and make it difficult for them to spot us. We'll drop into their water and take the sewage system inside. Once inside we'll learn what we can and make our next move."

"Don't forget to not kill anyone." She snapped in a whisper. The two glared at her. "We can't let them know we're here. If they start turning up dead they'll know something's up. After we've gotten the full layout of what's inside and where everything is we'll make our move. We have to know when the convoy will be here so we can set things up before they get here. Otherwise we'll be in for the fight of our lives."

Neither teen had anything to say to this. They simply glared at her and she glared right back. She knew they didn't like being leashed but it was the only way to keep them under control at the moment. If they simple started killing everyone body now they'd alert them to their presence and the mission would be a failure. Lives were at stack here and both boys wanted to save the girls but kill everything in their path.

She took watch that night for a few hours before Naruto took over. Zentrai relieved Naruto and remained transfixed on the fortress from his spot in the darkness.

Thirty minutes before dawn approached, the mute woke his companions up and got ready. Shibaru and Rai would stay at the camp and out of sight until they were needed.

As the sun began to rise over the mountains, the three took off as low to the earth as they could get. A tunnel would have worked better but it would have killed them in the long run. The cave would collapse after a day and that was without the water rushing in when they reached it. They needed to do this without being caught.

They reached the water as the guards changed shifts and kept their backs to the rising sun. They slipped into the water and silently swam for the sewage drain. They reached it and smiled at their luck. The bars were just big enough for the three to slip through. Zentrai had some minor trouble from the weapons he carried but he still slipped through. They swam underwater till they reached a small air pocket. They surfaced, sucked in the foul smelling air and dove back into the water. They swam and repeated the process till they reached a dry spot.

Naruto looked around, ignored the smell. He searched for a way out. He spotted it when he got a metal grate with bars. It was removable. He pushed it opened, checked the area, and stormed out with Zentrai and Lyra following his lead. They moved silently through the corridors after managing to wash the smell off in a shower. The guard they had run into was knocked out by Lyra when she managed to slid a bar of soap under his feet. He would awake and think little of it.

After cleaning up they took to the vents and started searching for the command center. Naruto ordered them to split up as they searched.

Zentrai found it and smiled as he sent the information to them. _"They'll be here tomorrow," _he sent. Naruto was in the weapons room and had smiled from his spot. Lyra was off near one of the guard towers underneath guards and watching them stroll by. _"Azula will be leading them here. But there's a problem. They might be on to the fact that we're on our way and have requested one more battalions to aid them. That means two thousand troops will be marching this way."_

"_We can take them." _Naruto thought. Zentrai picked it up and sent what he said to Lyra. Naruto waited a full ten seconds before continuing. _"We'll kill everyone in here tonight. First we have to take out the messenger birds so they don't get one off. After we've gotten he birds taken care of, we move onto the soldiers. Leave the commander alive though. We can get some information out of him regardless."_

Zentrai sent his words to him and then replied with Lyra's thoughts on the matter. _"We can't take a group that big on our own. I don't care how strong either of you two are, I can't take that many on by myself!"_

"_No. But I can take on most of them. What we need to do is cause enough chaos outside when they show and get within range of the place that they start to flee. Zentrai has enough long range weapons to take down that many people. Controlling that many weapons would be his downfall though. If you take out the rear guard when they get close enough and let most of them in, I can contend with half of the army while you two take out the others. But we'd need to make sure the girls are okay."_

He waited for Zentrai to relay the strategy. Zentrai replied for himself. _"There's a thunderstorm on the way. I have enough wire to reach the ground from here. If we set it up right and do this attack correct, during the storm I can use the lightning to enhance my powers but only for a short while. Protecting the girls can be Lyra's job. All you need to do is Earthbend a dome over them to protect them when the assault begins. Once they're secure we'll tear the enemy apart. My surprise attacks should kill at least a hundred of them right off the bat. Maybe even more. But if it starts to rain we'll be able to win the fight for sure since it will mask all of my smaller weapons."_

"_We'll be staying up late." _Naruto sent. _"After we've taken the stronghold we'll set up traps outside. We'll need to rig the place to keep enemies in that get in and their help out. I can handle that. Zentrai and Lyra, you two will handle the traps outside. Once we've secured the place, we'll interrogate any survivors, especially the commander here."_ Naruto waited for a reply. Neither of the teens replied for a long time before Zentrai sent him their answer.

"_We both agree." _

Naruto nodded and felt Zentrai leave his mind.

Night fell and the attack began. Zentrai killed the birds first and bagged them for Shibaru and Rai. He stuffed their blood soaked bodies in a locker and numbered it with an engraving of 69. The night shift guards were taken out quickly and quietly, their bodies hauled off out of sight for the time being. As the guards were thinned to nothing and those asleep still lived, Naruto ordered that high ranking members were to be left alive and captured.

The three moved from floor to floor, chamber to chamber, tower to tower killing everyone that was beneath the rank of a Squad Captain. They killed everyone that got in their way. By the time it was over the walls ran red with blood the mot was filled with it. The bodies were stashed away in prison cells that were going to be used to hold the girls. Their captive were thrown in the empty cells were dead weren't kept. Lyra broke ankles and wrists to ensure that no one thought of Firebending.

When the place was secure they started setting up traps. The first thing that was done was rigging the door with Fire Nation explosives. They'd break the restraints holding the door up and the bridge when it was lowered. Hiding them on the bridge was key. The bridge would be up when they arrived and lowered when they demanded entrance. Keeping it down would alert them and they didn't want that. They hid the explosives in the hinges, the chains, and the earth where it would land. Setting them off would be easy enough. But timing it was the problem. Naruto could hide a few clones there to set them off, but they were controlled by wicks. Each wick could run for a longer amount of time or shorter amount of time than the others.

Next came the traps. Lyra and Zentrai worked hard to stick hundreds of metal blades in the earth and in a spot where he could reach them. He made sure to have at least one wire run up to the closest guard tower so when he was struck by lightning he could channel it down into the weapons and earth to better help in grounding himself out.

Zentrai knew the risks of doing this. His powers over magnetism prevented him from being able to enter thunderstorms. He was like a lightning rod with his powers. They attracted lightning. A Firebender had once tried to lightning bend at someone in the distance but it was pulled towards him. It missed but it was proof that even that would strike at him as well.

When Zentrai was first struck by lightning, his powers increased dramatically. The waves he uses to control metal expand and allow him a greater control over it. The first time he was hit he found that he could levitate with only a thin blade at his side, something he usually couldn't do. But he also learned that even without metal on him he could still pull himself to it, creating the same thing. The downside to all of this was that the energy would build up in his body and with nowhere to leave would actually start to kill him.

The built up energy could only be removed through two methods. The first method was through the art of Redirecting Lightning. Iroh believed that only a Firebender could pull the energies out of his body because no one else could do it through even the most advanced methods of redirecting Chi. The second way for it to leave his system was for him to use up all of the built up energy. In ordered to do this he had to push his powers to its limits.

When he was struck by lightning the first time, Iroh had to pull the excess energy out of his body by holding onto him and directing his energy out by his technique of Redirecting Lightning. Had it not been for him he would have died that first go around.

Even though he knew the risks he was still determined to do it.

As the traps were finished being set, Naruto pulled Lyra to the side. "Begin interrogating the prisoners. I'm going to have Rai and Shibaru eat the dead. I'm willing to bet money that they're hungry by now." He moved swiftly to their small camp from before and ushered the two animals inside. They were lead to the pile of dead that had been stripped of their weapons, clothing, and armor. "Eat to your heart's content. But be sure to leave all the bones and blood that can," he ordered.

They dug in with gusty. Meat was meat to them. Human or otherwise it made no difference.

Naruto walked away from the carnage and stopped on the walls of the fortress. His eyes stared up at the moon. It was red. _The spirits are aware of our intent and have presented us with a blood moon. I wonder if that will hold out till tomorrow as well, _he wondered. The moon and stars held no answers for him. They simple twinkled and sat in the sky, watching over him and all life on Earth.

Rai approached him with half eaten human torso in his mouth. He whimpered. Naruto turned and smiled at him, patting his leg for him to come closer. Rai did and sat down beside him. Naruto gently began to scratch behind his horn again.

"Our opponent is Azula, a brilliant tactician, Rai. I'm worried that she thought this through and has changed locations already. We did everything so smoothly that I'm wondered if we're falling into one her traps." He confessed. Rai licked his lips and began to purr softly. Naruto smiled. "I'm sure everything we'll be alright. Azula doesn't know that Lyra is alive and with us. The Earthbending Terror that is Lyra is here with us. We can save them, Rai. I know we can. We have to."

Naruto turned in for the remainder of the night, leaving his clones to handle security. He'd sleep for a few hours while Lyra interrogated the men they had captured.

(-)

Commander Yin awoke with a start. His hands and legs were shackled to a metal chair. He was stripped of his clothing say for his pants. He grunted and groaned as he tried to escape. After two minutes of trying he gave up. There was no point in trying. He couldn't get out even if he wanted to.

The metal door opened and Lyra stepped in. She looked at him with a sly smile. Yin snorted at her presence. He wished now that he knew how to Firebend through his nose and mouth like Iroh had. It would have been useful to him in this situation.

"Hello, Commander Yin. I trust you enjoyed your sleep?" She cooed. His jaw began to ache. He moved it around and she smiled. "Naruto probably punched you a little too hard. Not to worry though, he didn't break your jaw. He wanted you alive for information."

"I'm not talking." He turned his head as far as he could. She shrugged; something he caught out of the corner of his vision. "You can't make me either." He added.

Lyra shrugged again as she approached him. "Are you so sure about that?" She reached down, grabbing firm hold of the first pinky joint and bent it upwards till it snapped. Yin seemed perplexed for a moment, as if the idea of torture was enough to make him snap. Then he screamed. The Earthbender waited patiently for him to finish screaming. After he finished she asked her question. "When is Azula getting here?"

His breathing became labored. "Screw yourself!"

She bent the second joint in the pinky finger backwards till it broke. He screamed again. Lyra watched him scream bloody murder and curse every word at her. He even used the C-word on her. That only got him the final joint in his pinky broken.

"When is Azula getting here?" She repeated.

He screamed over and over as the pain continued to lance through him. When he stopped screaming she repeated herself and he gave a sharp answer.

"Whenever the hell she wants to!" She bent the ring fingers' first joint backwards till it broke. He screamed and soon corrected his answer. "Late at night! That's all I know!"

"How many troops are traveling with her?" He looked away as he continued to breathe heavily. He spat at her and she broke the second joint in the finger. He gritted through the pain and didn't scream as much as the last time. He still screamed though. "How many troops are traveling with her?" He shook his head and glared at her. She smiled and broke the remaining joints in the finger. He screamed only when she decided to bend the two broken fingers all the way to the back of his hand. Then he screamed for a long time.

"Three thousand," he shouted. She reached for the other middle finger to break the next joint. "They have tanks with them and will be transporting the girls in one of the transports that Azula herself had used from before!" She stopped before she could reach the finger.

"Good boy," she cooed. "Now let's move on to something more interesting. Where are the homes of the Generals and War Ministers? Where do they live and where do they vacation?" He remained tight lip about that. She had to break all the joints in that finger along with three others before he would talk about it.

"The Generals stay in the Royal Palace next to those with Royal Blood. I'm sure where our current War Minister sleeps. Ember Island is where all Royal Family members and Generals take their vacations. It's a small island on the outskirts of the Fire Nation. It was one of our most pristine places to go. I've only been there once. I went with my…" Lyra broke the next fingers' first joint to shut him up. She didn't want to hear about his trip there. She wanted information on where everyone slept and whatnot.

He screamed for the longest time.

"What sort of security does that Fire Lord have?"

"I don't know!" She broke all the fingers on his left hand but did so slowly. She had to break the thumb last on his hand and twist it to break the bone between his thumb and index finger. Yin screamed for so long that when he finally stopped she still heard him screaming in her mind. The brutal interrogation continued until Zentrai woke up and read the man's mind. Anything he'd lied about would be on display for him. After reading his mind and confirming that everything he gave them was true he was eaten alive by Rai and Shibaru, but not pleasantly plump from all the dead men and women they'd eaten.

(-)

Rehka laughed as Azula bit back on her tongue. Rehka was a bit thinner now than what she once had been. They had fed them table scraps once a day, making sure to keep them barely alive so they didn't pose a threat during the trip. She hadn't had much water either. She tired, in pain, but she was laughing. Azula couldn't understand why though. The other girls soon started laughing as well. Tired and weak, their laughter was more like a fit of low giggles, but she knew they were laughing. And at her for some reason. They knew something she didn't.

"What is so funny," she barked out. Rehka continued to laugh at her. Azula burned her left shoulder. She stopped laughing and grunted for a moment before resuming her laughter. "Stop it! Stop it, I say!" She burned her again and again. And again, Rehka continue to laugh, each time growing more use to the pain until her laughter destroyed all sense of her own suffering. Azula took a step back. She couldn't understand why they laughed at her.

"Why do you laugher at our princess?" One of the guards snapped. He grabbed one of the girls up by her collar and tore her clothing off. The same girl started laughing. "You mock me?" He slapped her hard across the face. Blood splattered to the ground and she kept on smiling and laughing. "Stop it?"

"You're so stupid," Rehka finally said. The guard raised a hand but Azula staved it with a quick raise of her own. He backed away.

"Why do you say we're stupid? Do you not understand the severity of your current situation?"

Rehka chuckled. "I think it is you that doesn't understand the situation that you're in, Azula." The Fire Princess's eyes hardened while Ty Lee and Mai watched from the door to the cells they were in. "What you fail to realize is that the two strongest men I know of will soon learn of what's happened to us. It doesn't matter if they have us or not. They will find us eventually and when they do, they will find you."

"I'm counting on it."

"How many lives do you intend to throw at them? Do you not comprehend the depths of their powers or how far down you're dragging yourself?" Azula cocked her head a bit to the side. She knew full well what they could do. She'd seen it with her own two eyes. The only one that remained a mystery was Zentrai, but she could deal with him. He was nothing special in her eyes, but the words of Naruto still rang in her mind.

Rehka took a deep breath and looked at her girls. They were beaten, starved, thirsty, battered, burned, and bruised, but they smiled. Their clothes could be destroyed but they could be renewed. They could be starved to the point of death, but still eat when they were released. They could be thirsty, but they would soon quench their thirst. Everything Azula did to them could be mended. And still they laughed and smiled at her like good little children with a dirty little secret.

The mother of the brothel girls turned her attention to Azula and smiled. "Capturing us is a week or two of torture by their book," she said. The guard shifted his stance and dropped the girl in his hands. "Bruises add three days to the torture. Burn marks add six days. A single misplaced hair gets you an added week. Broken bones, being starved and parched of thirst, blood loss, cuts… these all add a month to it. And that's just for one injury. Look at us. We are burned, bruised, our hair has been singed and ripped away, our skin torn and battered. How long do you think you will suffer when they find you?"

Azula caught something in those eyes. It reminded her of the eyes Naruto had when he used his power. They lusted for death and destruction, but her smile was genuine and carrying. It confused her and worried her.

She stuffed the feelings down into the depths of her mind as she offered up a smile. "I don't need to worry about them. They will do as they are told so long as I have you. You'll be heading to the strongest Fire Nation base here in the Earth Kingdom. Our Stronghold will hold you and be ready for them when they arrive. They should be getting our message tomorrow. And with the distance between here and there, I doubt they will get there in time." She began looking at her finger nails as if to mock her.

Rehka still smiled.

"You smile now, but when they show up, I will use you to control them. If I die, my guards will burn all of you to ash right before them."

"And you will release damnation upon the world." Ty Lee stared at her for the longest of times. As Azula turned to leave, Rehka smiled some more. "You're death will be slow and painful, Azula. That much I can promise you." She snorted and stormed off with her guards following her. Mai soon left with Ty Lee waiting at the door.

"I'll be out in a minute," Ty Lee said as she shut the door. Mai gave her a strange glance and then nodded as the door was shut. The guards had left and would guard the outside walls. There would be no way for them to escape without using the one and only door. The young acrobat turned her attention to Rehka who dropped her smile and dawned a puzzled look. "I'm sorry for what's happening. I thought Azula would keep her word. I swear." She explained.

"You have no reason to beg, little one," Rehka announced. Ty Lee looked confused for a moment. "You have questions for me. Speak and I may answer."

Ty Lee smiled her usual smile and knelt down next to her. "I wish to know about Naruto's powers. You've known him longer than anyone else I can currently speak with. Surely you must know something." Rehka's expression hardened and she slowly shook her head. "All I wanna know about is the blood thirsty aura I sensed him. What is it?"

Rehka looked away for a brief moment. Her gaze was transfixed on any of the girls. It was as if she were looking at something in the distance that horrified her beyond all belief. She shuddered slightly before turning back to her. "What you seek cannot be understood through my words alone. You must ask him yourself. Only he can explain what that was. To us it is a spirit that once lived within him. He says it was evil, but for all its evil he only uses its power for good."

Ty Lee chewed on her lip. That wasn't what she was expecting.

"I know what you speak of. I've seen the aura too. I've felt it more than saw it. So angry it was. So full of hate and destruction that it seemed impossible for him to be the way he is. There are things Naruto has kept hidden from me because he doesn't want to destroy our way of life. He doesn't believe in the spirits as I do. He believes in only what he can see with his two eyes." Rehka pressed on.

Ty Lee shook her head. "But you must know something about it? How can he have such an evil taint in him while he still has aura of kindness and remorse during battle? How is such a thing possible? I know people can have two auras at once depending on what they are. But those two auras were polar opposites. How is such a thing possible?"

The brothel owner smiled. "The questions you're asking are ones I can't answer. You must ask Naruto yourself to get the answers that you seek. But I will let you in on a sad thing about him. To my knowledge there are only two people he has shared his secret to. Lyra and Zentrai. Lyra, as you know, died some time ago. So that only leaves Zentrai to know the secret about him. However, Zentrai won't tell it to anyone either, no matter what you do. You could sleep with him and he still wouldn't tell you because that's how deep his loyalty lies with him."

Ty Lee rose and slowly turned to leave. She stopped at the door and banged her head gently on it. She didn't get what she wanted. She just got more questions out of it all.

Rehka smiled softly. "I will tell you something interesting about he and I though." She turned to face the older woman. "Naruto wasn't raised with the love of a mother or father. When I learned this I took him in as my own child. I raised him to be my son and gave him the love he always wanted. Like all my girls and those who come to me, I am a willing mother for all." Ty Lee smiled to that knowledge and Rehka pushed forward. "Why did you want to know more about him? Do you care for him?" Ty Lee slowly turned with a brow arched. Rehka smiled. "No need to be shy. I've got a few girls that want to bear his children for his love and kindness and loyalty to his friends. Marriage is a thing of the past for us who work at the brothels."

Ty Lee's face became crimson at the idea of that. Naruto was a good looking guy. He was strong and brave and swift and smart. He was a high ranking assassin that had the Fire Nation in a panic before even the Avatar appeared. His power was on par with probably even the Avatar. She hadn't seen the fight, but Azula did state that he bested him in combat, meaning that he had the advantage in age, brains, strength, speed, and being well rested on his side. But there was also the fact that all these girls were very pretty when they didn't look beaten up.

But her thoughts drifted from her and she found herself becoming jealous of the girls for even wanting to bear his children. The very thought unnerved her and she didn't understand why. Rehka continued to smile until she spoke again.

"Do you have feelings for him?" Ty Lee turned away to hide her flushed cheeks. She was embarrassed and she didn't know why. She hardly spent time with him. Growling in annoyance to it all, she forcefully opened the door and slammed it shut while storming away. Rehka shook her head and then looked to one of her girls. "Why are the cute ones always so dumb?" She asked.

"I don't know. I've been sending signals to Naruto since the day I met him and he still hasn't picked up on them." The girl offered up. Rehka blinked and then sighed. The girls all did the same. "Men are clueless unless it's thrown in their faces. I guess a hot guy like Naruto even needs that thrown in his face. If we get out of this, I'm going to ravage him even if he doesn't want it." Rehka smiled. Finally someone would bed the kid.

"What about Zentrai?" Another girl inquired.

Rehka looked at the girl who spoke and said, "He's a special case. And that's not a man. That's a walking, talking, penis." The girls busted up laughing.

(-)

When morning came at the stronghold, Naruto was awoken by Lyra with a gently nudge. "Hey," she said rousing him from his slumber. Naruto sat up in the commander's bed and smiled. Rai was still at his feet with no bodies to eat. He'd eaten them all during the night. "We've finished setting up the traps and I've secured dozens of weapons and armor for our people." Naruto's stomach growled. She grinned. "I even made breakfast as well."

"_She's a good woman, Naruto! She knows how to cook and where her place is!" _Zentrai's mental voice rang in from the shadows and Lyra stomped the ground once to Earthbend his face into a wall. _"You are an evil…" _She did it again and he stopped talking.

"Yes… I'm a bitch. What of it?" She laughed.

"_I wasn't going to say that. I was going to say, "You are an evil sexy bitch!"_

Naruto ran a hand through his hair and yawned. The place smelt like blood and cooked rice. Clearly she had started her brew close to the chamber for the chance to impress him with her cooking skills. Getting to his feet, he slipped his shirt on and marched towards the door. Opening it he found Zentrai's imprint in the wall and Shibaru licking his face as though she were nursing his wounds. Zentrai pretended to be unconscious. He failed since Shibaru was actually licking his face at the moment.

Naruto stopped at the pot of fire and suddenly staggered. "Whose idea was it to dispel the clones at the same time?" He grumbled as he went over what they did during the night. "And why did they suddenly stop to play games?" Zentrai started laughing while Lyra shook her head. The blond groaned and grabbed a bowl of the rice and meat. "At least we got a bunch of information out of the survivors. Targeting Ember Island would be too much of a hassle unless we could get in and get out with a prized target."

"_If Azula doesn't show up, she might turn up there and we can kidnap her as a result. We can hold a big ransom for her since her dad is probably fucking her." _Naruto laughed slightly to that notion while Lyra rolled her eyes. _"Let's face it. She's a daddy's girl and we both know it. Her dad could ask her to slit her throat and she might do it if it proved how loyal she was to him."_

"That doesn't mean he's sleeping with her," Lyra scolded. Zentrai shrugged his shoulders and rose from the ground. He got himself something to eat and sat down next to Shibaru. Rai approached smacking his lips and Naruto smiled while scratching behind his horn. "The storm is fast approaching. It will probably delay them by a few hours."

"We'll manage. The storm will give us an advantage in the long run. Firebenders will be weakened by the downpour and their fire will lack much of a bite in the end. It will make the earth easier for bending, even though you're an excellent Earthbender." Lyra grinned and began flexing her hand. "With darkened skies and no light it will make them disoriented and hard pressed to take us down. If we stick directly to the plan we should be able to do this. Just make sure you time your parts right. We can't let Azula get the drop on us no matter what."

The two teens nodded and quickly finished their meal. What few corpses remained, were quickly eaten by Rai and Shibaru. As the place was cleaned up for the upcoming battle, Naruto was left wondering what Rehka was doing at the moment. He figured she was mocking Azula at the moment and telling her about her fate. She was a stubborn woman, but one that was a mother figure to him.

(-)

Naruto, Zentrai, and Lyra slept with Naruto's clones patrolling the walls. They needed their rest for when things got bad. Rai and Shibaru were out by their camp sleeping and would warn the sentries before the enemy came within sight.

Two hours before the enemy arrived they were awakened by one of the clones and warned of the situation. Naruto dismissed the clone and got dressed for combat. Dawning his assassin attire, his eyes hardened and his body began to tense. _Hang on, Rehka… We're about to save you. _He closed his eyes as he walked out of the chamber.

Zentrai had run on ahead since he slept in his combat gear. He was already at the wall and watching as Lyra ran to her position on the field. She would hide in the soggy earth and wait for confirmation that Rehka and the girls were with them and in which container. Naruto watched her pull the earth over her form and disguise herself as a normal boulder. No one would think anything of it.

Zentrai moved into position as the rain began to drop. The two males looked to the sky and watched as lightning began to dance from cloud to cloud. In the distance it could be seen jumping to the ground. "It's a big one," Naruto observed. He turned his attention to Zentrai. "Are you sure you wanna do this?"

"_I'm going to kill all of them for what they've done. No one messes with my family." _He got in his location and waited for the signal. He assumed the lotus stance and began searching for Rehka or any of the girls.

Naruto moved to his hiding spot. He would be behind the walls that overlooked the courtyard while his clones disguised as the guards manned the bridge and gate. One clone could do this while the others were in position to blow the place up. They would bring the place crashing down to keep those that got inside trapped and those that were left outside from getting in. Naruto had made it clear that anyone trapped inside belonged to him. No one was to kill them or get in his way. Zentrai gave the same warning to him, stating that only after he'd dealt with his enemies could he contend with the ones that would be outside.

(-)

Azula stared up at the fortress and the storm. The engineer whistled. "Impressive storm," he muttered. Azula cut her eyes to him. The guard nodded nervously and looked back to Azula for a moment. She gave him a warning glare. "You think it's a hurricane?"

The guard looked baffled. "This time of the year? It's too soon. A few more weeks' maybe. Maybe even a month or two if we're lucky."

Azula looked at the storm now as the guard looked up at it from inside the tank-like train they were in. The clouds bulged into bulbous forms and rain began to poor out of it like a knife had gutted them. The rain hit hard and fast. She watched her troops for any sign of discomfort. They could be standing eight feet in mud and she'd expect them to walk through it without complaints. No one complained or even dared turn a blind eye away from their path.

She smiled.

Her formation was simple. Her transport was being used to hold the prisoners. They had to add another compartment to ensure they got them all inside. Surrounding them were eight tanks on either side to form an arrow head with eight more running behind them in a box formation on either side of her. In front of them were the scouts, five platoons lead by veteran squad commanders. Behind her and the tanks was one battalion with one more on each side of the massive set of transports. She wanted maximum protection in case they showed up.

So far her plan had worked without a hitch. It unnerved her to know it was going so smoothly. She had expected some sort of resistance of any kind from Earthbenders, simple townsfolk, or Naruto and Zentrai. But nothing had shown up. It was like everyone had been told to leave them be and stay out of their way. She was a wreck by this. She knew something should have happened. She thought about calling the transport to a halt, but the fortress was in sight and she could see the guards moving across the tower just how she had ordered. They moved in pairs of two.

When she sent the message that she was going to be bringing dangerous criminals to them to lure out some people she had ordered that they start off by showing three guards to a patrol team each in the hopes that if Naruto could make more than five clones he'd try to duplicate that amount. And on the last day they were to switch things over to two man teams to show they were still under control.

She chewed on her lower lip. Everything had gone smoothly. She knew Commander Yin from personally experience. He was a brilliant man and hard to break. He'd won countless victories against the Earthbending armies they encountered and was more wildly known for his daring acts of heroism. He'd been promoted and demoted so many times that it became a chore just to remember his rank at times. He'd been captured dozens of times and never spoken a word of the Fire Nation and her secrets to anyone. He wouldn't break easily.

She leaned back against her chair and stared at the fort.

Thunder ripped across the sky with lightning striking the towers. The grounding rods were still working. She looked at the tower trying to see if something was wrong with it. Nothing was wrong with it.

"Is something wrong, Princess?" She snapped back to reality and glared at the guard. He turned away. "Forgive me. You looked perplexed for a moment."

"I was just thinking." She admitted. She cocked her elbow onto the armrest and propped her head onto her fist. She stared at the fortress as it came into view. Nothing was out of place. _Maybe I'm just paranoid by his power, _she thought for a moment. Her gut clinched and she felt a cold chill pass through her. She hadn't forgotten the feeling of despair. It was hard to forget. She stood up and smiled. "Inform the squads that we'll be heading straight for the fortress. They're to prepare for imminent attack from two-"

The thing rocked to the side and threw her against the hard metal walls. She banged her head hard and darkness consumed her. She awoke with a splitting headache and blood dripped down her face. Her two guards were getting up with cracked masks while the engineers had been killed during… whatever they went through.

The thing shifted again and she was once more thrown against the wall. Metal groaned and she heard something break. The ground rumbled and suddenly she was looking down at the ground. She fell for the front of the thing and hit hard. She barely had time to brace for the fall. Metal groaned once more and the thing fell on its back. She braced for it this time and land on her feet by flipping in the air.

"We're under attack!" She shouted.

"_AZULA! I'M COMING FOR YOU, BITCH!"_

Her eyes widened. Zentrai was here already? How? When? Did they take the fortress? How was that possible? How did they get everything right for her arrival?

She moved towards the door and tore it open. A monsoon was probably the only way to describe the weather outside. She took one step outside then stepped back in as gurgling sounds exploded to her left. She jumped in and looked through the busted windows as shimmering objects rained down from the clouds. She watched her troops drop like stones with tiny blades protruding out of their bodies. Some had them in their skulls and chests to look like pincushions while others had one or two inside them.

Lightning danced from cloud to cloud and soon formed a point above one of the towers. She watched in wonder and fear as it built up a charge and dropped down onto the tower. A mental shriek tore through her mind and everyone else in the area. Some of the troops not killed by the barrage of weapons dropped to a knee and tried to tune it out while the wounded fell to the ground screaming and withering in pain.

Then it happened. She remembered the guards that were set to guard the prisoners. She rushed back to the door and found the compartments gone. She swore and turned to her two guards. They moved to protect her from whatever was going on outside.

Several dull explosions tore through them and she watched a fireball form at the fortress walls. They crumbled in on themselves and she watched in complete dismay as her forces were cut down by Earthbending and flying pieces of metal. Her tanks were moving in to deal with the threat.

She swore loudly and moved to the back. She would not lose. She would win this fight and kill the mute with her dying breath. She would not go back to her father empty handed. She would not be treated like Zuko for such a failure. This was beneath her.

The moment she stepped foot outside was the moment she was blindsided. Mud and earth hit her from the side and sent her skidding along the ground. She rose to her feet and snorted fire as a girl caked in mud appeared. "Azula of the Fire Nation," she growled out. "My name is Lyra, the Demon Goddess to your people. You have hurt and endangered my family and those I care for. I will destroy you."

Azula snorted and glared at the woman. Her mind cleared. Lyra? She was dead? Zhao had confirmed her death by the tattoos on her arm. There was no way she could be alive unless they had staged it. She looked at the left arm. It was gone. This was her. They had pulled a fast one over the Fire Nation.

"_Zentrai," _Lyra sent calmly. _"I have Azula. She's mine. Get involved and I promise you will have no chance of _**ever**___getting in my pants. Understood?" _No reply came. She smiled. She didn't know if that meant he'd leave them alone or if he'd get involved anyways. From his greeting it was pretty clear that he wanted nothing more than to destroy the woman. The Earthbending beauty smiled and raised her one arm for fighting. "Azula, I'm going to leave you here to die when this is done. You'll live through this fight, I assure you. But in the end you will die. We're going to leave no survivors but you."

"Last time he did that it only took me an hour to get back to the others and get ready for this. I staged this right from the beginning. As soon as I stumbled across that village I took a chance and had it captured just one day after we left. Father really wants them to join the Fire Nation anyways. We'll do it by any means necessary or kill them by any means necessary."

"So you're going to throw away the lives of everyone in the end?" Azula gave her a hard glare. "You should know that in this weather and the cold winds you're Firebending will be severally weakened." She smiled. "And you had best hope I'm the one that beats you because if I'm not, Zentrai and Naruto will torture you for years to come. Den will rape and torture you for information. Zentrai will break your will. Naruto will beat you senseless. And the girls will turn you into a personal sex slave for their desires. People will pay good money to fuck you, Azula. And we'll do just that. We'll make money by selling your body to those who want Royal Pussy."

She glared at the teen and then charged her. Lyra met her halfway and got in her defense before it could even form. She thrust her palm into her gut and knocked her back. She rolled in the mud and snorted fire from her nose. "Come get some!" Lyra screamed.

(-)

Power flowed through Zentrai like a great waterfall. He felt powerful. Godlike even. But still he knew it was false and nothing but an illusion. It was a power he couldn't control. Like a moth to the flame he always wanted more when he used this power. He wanted more control, more range, more speed, and more power. But one bolt of lightning was plenty. He couldn't risk death now. He had to return to Rehka as he always promised her he would.

He dropped to his knees like a Knight bowing before his King. His eyes were closed but his mind was opened. He marveled at the energies he could feel. His mind worked so fast that it left him wanting more power.

His smile grew and he threw his head back in laughter. He cackled loudly as he felt their lives get extinguished by his weapons, their connection to him severed. He savored the taste and feel of it. He relished it. He felt close enough to be a Reaper with his power as he plucked their lives away like a flower from a garden. His blades cut them down so fast they had no time to know they were even dead.

He stood up, his back arched, and began float in the air. The metal weapons on his body pulled him into the sky. He brought his head down, his chin busting against his chest. He tasted his own blood from his lip but paid it no mind. His blood had a foul taste to it compared to the mental taste of death and severed connections through his mind link.

He could hear though. Some part in the darkest part of his brain at the moment was mocking him, calling him a Vampire for taking so much pleasure in the taste of death. He might as well be. He was getting off to this. All this power, all these tastes, memories, and their severed connection to his mind. There was no greater feeling to him. It was like your first kiss. You never wanted to stop when you started. The taste of a woman's flesh when she ate too many fruits. That was how it tasted to him to have their minds severed from his mental connection.

He couldn't see his enemies. He simple felt them and their connections. He kept a count of the dead he'd racked up and what they were doing as they died. His surprise attack had killed roughly three hundred. No one saw it coming. A hail of blades had rained down from the sky from weapon racks and blades wrapped in cloth. He threw everything that belonged to the Fire Nation here into the sky and let it rain down on them like hail from the sky.

Once he was struck by lightning he opened his mind and linked with everyone he could find and began the slaughter. He was safe in the tower. They would have to get inside the walls to get to him and he had been smart enough to get into a well secure area after being hit the first time around by lightning. He couldn't risk a second hit right after the first. It would destroy him or worse.

He sent his weapons were they were needed. Fire Nation soldiers, benders and non-benders circled around Lyra and he dropped those that he could. Lyra was holding her own against Azula. He wished he could be there to help her. He wanted to kill Azula for what she'd done. But he smiled knowing that if Lyra fell and backed off he'd get his chance. What she had told her was true. They would rape and torture her. They'd break her will and sell her body to those who wanted a piece of her ass. Sure it was cruel, but what was she to them? She was a harbinger of death and destruction. She deserved this and more.

Something exploded from behind him and a massive energy wave pulsed through him. _Naruto, _he thought to himself. _Kill them all. Kill them all and let me fill their deaths with my mind. I want to know what they're last thoughts were! _

(-)

Four hundred troops had gotten inside the fortress before Naruto's clones blew the bridge and cut off their support. He wanted them to feel true despair. He wanted those that watched from across the mot to see what happened when you pissed off a former Jinchuuriki who held the strongest Bijuu in existence. He wanted them to crap and piss their pants at the same time as he slaughtered all of their comrades. And most of all, he wanted to kill everything that got in his path.

Fire Nation soldiers began to try and find a way to the tower where Zentrai was. They would fail. They had collapsed all entrances. The only way in would be to scale the walls of the tower and that was impossible less they had a ladder.

One of the men turned and swore loudly. The others slowly began to turn. Naruto stood on the tower with a demonic grin on his face. His eyes were already crimson and glowing brightly in the darkness that had swallowed the land. They began to creep back to the exit only to watch as the teen raised his hands to the side as if he were receiving a gift from God. "Death is the only way out." His voice carried to all of them despite the raging winds and thunderous storm. "I will destroy all of you for your crimes. There will be no survivors. And there is but one way out of here."

Those that could Firebend got to the front of the line and began attacking. Naruto jumped up onto the tallest part of the building and watched their flames destroy the first deck. Chunks of molten metal rained down onto the ground. The blond inhaled deeply and then opened his eyes. The red aura appeared and consumed him. Like flames in the wind it danced with the wind like a living flame. It pulsed, weakened, grew, and soon became in rhythm with his breathing.

"It's four hundred against one!" One of the men yelled.

Naruto smiled as his aura began to die down to just a trickle of his power. "True. But you've forgotten one thing. I'm the Bloody Inferno!" His power exploded and began to break the metal he was standing on. The men began shooting fireballs at him as he crouched down to jump at them. "Prepare to die!"

He blurred through their attacks and appeared between a dozen men. A single kick and punch and the men dropped in two difference pieces. He had punched and kicked the men in half with one attack. His speed was too fast to follow but his current stance told it all. The metal gauntlets he wore had clawed fingers and allowed him to do so with his amazing speed and strength. His legs moved so fast that they seemed to just pass through the men when he attacked.

As the bodies hit the ground he blurred away and more men dropped. The soldiers grew into a panic and put their backs together. Their circle was too big and the teen slipped inside it. He kicked, punched, elbowed, snapped necks, and tore out hearts faster than they could follow. The men dropped just as he vanished and appeared between another group. He tore limbs off and maimed his enemies as the dead dropped at his feet.

The teen turned and blurred around dozens of spears and fireballs and tore through them like wet tissue paper. They dropped in heaps of broken bones and metal. Their weapons and armor were splintered and destroyed with their weapons. Naruto stole weapons and jammed them into their bodies. After a mere two minutes of fighting the yard was covered in ankle high blood. Organs were strewn across the yard with an endless sight of bodies torn apart. Naruto won but his rage still remained.

He trotted off towards the broken walls and moved onto the land. Zentrai was destroying everything in his path. Nothing was surviving his brutal assault. The only thing he was having trouble with was the tanks. Naruto blurred into them and smashed the men inside into soft mush. One by one the tanks were destroyed until nothing but twisted metal remained.

The storm slowly began to pass as the fighting died down. And as the storm died down, Zentrai appeared still ready for a fight. He dropped down to Naruto's side and the two ran to Lyra as she dealt with the remaining Fire Nation soldiers which were luckily non-benders.

In a matter of seconds the men were killed and only Azula remained. She had bruises to match for Lyra's burns. Her arm was dented and cracked. Her hair was a wreck and her blood stained the land. Lyra was banged up as well but like Azula still on her feet. She had burn marks on her face and clothing. Her hair was singed and still smoky. But her grin remained in the end while Azula's turned to one of utter fear.

She dropped down on her ass as Naruto's power began to consume her. She felt fear and despair run through her. She was frozen in place as Naruto approached her, removing a wickedly curved blade from his belt. He grabbed her hair and tore her armor off her flesh. Tears formed in her eyes. Naruto saw her will broken in an instant. It did nothing to quall his rage and lust for revenge. Naruto moved the knife towards her chest.

"Stop," Rehka ordered.

He stopped on instinct and turned quickly to the sound of her voice. Rehka had a look of defiance on her face. She only looked that way when she scolded those under her care. Naruto tossed Azula at the ground and looked away from the girls. They were all staring at him. He was covered in so much blood that he probably looked just like a demon and nothing else.

Azula tried to scamper to her feet but failed to do because of slippery the ground was.

"There has been too much bloodshed. No more. I will not have you kill anymore in front of my girls. You've slain enough men to drown this land in blood. Let it go. Let her live." She urged. Lyra was the first to drop her stance and walk up to Rehka.

Naruto looked away still and hardened his eyes on the form of Azula. She was awfully terrified of him now. "Fine," he conceded. She breathed a sigh of relief to know he wouldn't kill her. Rehka's eyes darkened. "But," Azula froze as he reached down and grabbed her by the throat. His grip was strong and threatened to choke her to death. "I will leave my mark on you, Azula. You will be branded from this point on for what you've done. You, little miss perfect, will always have theses marks."

With one gloved hand he carved the kanji for Failure above her left eye. She screamed in pain as the blood dripped down over her eye and down her flesh. He'd cut her all the way to the bone to ensure that no matter what she tried to do the mark would remain. He tossed her to Zentrai who did the same. Zentrai carved his own word above her right eye and she continued to scream as the blade he used dug to her skull as well.

"Failure and Shame," Naruto said. Azula dropped to her knees holding the marks she now had. "Where I'm from, they stand for Failure and Shame. You will be a Failure for failing to kill or capture me. And you will know the Shame of defeat for trying to wrong our loved ones. I'm letting you off easily because of Rehka. Were it not for her, I would destroy everything about you, Azula. You're body would be destroy by all sorts of horrors that our twisted minds can come up with. But I'm letting you go. I want you to live with your shame and failure from this point on, Azula. Live, knowing, that you're not perfect anymore."

He turned and began walking with the girls. Zentrai had to be carried by Shibaru. A few of the weaker girls were carried by Naruto and those with the strength to do so. They left Azula in the mud without her clothing. They just left her there with her shame and failure.

She glared at their retreating forms. She rose to her feet and started to run at them. She stopped and turned away as her fear of death consumed her. Naruto's power surged through her mind and she imaged a horrid sense of death and destruction. For the first time in a long time she cried and then hurled as she stared at the field of corpses. She hadn't ever seen death like this. Images and stories had told her it was gruesome. But this was nothing short of a massacre.

The wind nipped at her naked flesh and she moved to the fortress. It was the only place she could go that would be safe from the storm that now seemed to hover directly over her. She was greeted with more death and blood. Bones scattered throughout the rooms. Everything was covered in blood. Every room, every cell, every nock and cranny was covered with blood say for the sewage entrance that Naruto and his team had used.

She turned her nose up at and walked into the commander's bedroom. Blood soaked everything and the wall that overlooked the ocean was busted out, letting the harsh winds in. Naruto had made certain that if she lived, she would suffer greatly. _He probably predicted that she would stave his blade, _she realized. She turned and moved to the only one room that didn't actually have enough blood to seem gruesome. It was a simple prison cell that was filled with only minor amounts of blood on the floor. The only creepy thing about it was the bloodied hand prints that decorated the walls.

She shuddered and found it difficult to fall asleep. After three hours of listening to the howling winds she managed to somehow curl up and sleep.

(-)

Ty Lee and Mai stared at the devastation left by the attack. Ty Lee and Mai found it hard to breath, let alone stare at the carnage that was left behind. Bodies remained and the scent of decay hit them so strongly that Mai and Ty Lee had hurled long before they even approached the place. They had been downwind and that was their first clue that something had gone horribly wrong.

"Spread out," Mai ordered to the Fire Nation troops. "Check for survivors." She nudged her friend and they moved into the stronghold.

Ty Lee turned her eyes away from the mangled bodies of dead men. They all died with horrified expressions on their face. But that wasn't the real thing she turned away. From the corner of her vision she could see it again. The specter that had appeared over Naruto was here. It remained like an imprint on the land, as though this place was now some monument to evil that would never be rid of it. It taunted her, scared her, and frightened her greatly. It knew she could see it and remained in her field of vision.

"I can't believe this," one of the men spoke up. Mai turned and looked at him. The guard removed his mask and shook his head. "How could two people do all of this? What sort of people were they?"

"I don't know. Let's keep searching." She ordered. They move from floor to floor, room to room in search of Azula. Ty Lee eventually got scared and ran away from the place. Mai didn't understand her fears and pressed on with the guards. They moved from cell to cell eventually and then spotted her. Azula was huddled under a thin blanket that was soaked crimson. She whimpered in fear and shivered from the cold as they approached her. "Azula?" Mai called out.

She rose slowly and her face was stained crimson. Mai took a step back and then shouted orders to the guards. She ran up to her, knelt down and caressed her hand. "Azula, what happened?" Azula remained silent. The brooding weapon mistress looked deeply into her eyes. The fire they held was gone, replaced with fear. "What happened to you?" She ran a hand over her head and felt something ridged. Azula hissed.

"Here."

Mai took an offered wet rag and began to clean the blood from her face. Two markings appeared over her eyes and Mai stared at them for a long time. She looked away and noted that Azula was naked. "Get me some clothes and blankets. And have the doctors on standby. She's hurt." She turned back to Azula and slowly began to help her rise. Azula shook with fear and sat back down. "Azula…" One of the guards stepped in with blankets. "We can't let the others see her like this. Can you carry her out of her in the blankets?"

"Of course," he said solemnly. They wrapped her up and took her down to her transport. By the time they had gotten her to their transport a messenger bird had appeared. The guard that carried her took the message and then presented it to Mai. Ty Lee was off with Azula trying to make her feel better.

Mai read the message.

_**Azula, you are to come home immediately. I want to know why you've made enemies of Uzumaki Naruto and Zentrai. Failure to do so will result in your immediate banishment or worse.**_

_**Fire Lord Ozai. **_

She crumbled the message and gave the man a nod. "Take us home. But do so slowly. We'll need time to get her back on her feet. I hope that doesn't take too long." The guard nodded and started shouting commands to the others as Mai moved to Azula's side. "Azula, what happened here? You have to tell us what happened?"

The Fire Nation Princess turned her head slightly to face them and her features changed. She was coming back to them. If that was a good thing they didn't know. She glared at them and then hissed through clinched teeth, "It's none of your business!" Mai stiffened and then threw the message in her face. She read it and stiffed considerably. "He can't do that to me? He can't treat me like Zuko!"

"I think its best you tell us what happened or else things will get ugly real soon, Azula." Mai snapped. "And believe me; if my father hears about this, you can beat that he won't give a damn if you're the Fire Lord himself when he pulls me from your team. We need to know what happened and we need to know now."

Azula remained silent for a few hours before deciding to talk about it. "They got there first. They killed everyone inside and tortured everyone for information I guess. Only cleaned bones and blood remained behind. They destroyed all the food, soiled the water, destroyed the bandages, bedding, and destroyed the walls to ensure that the wind moved through the place. I guess they planned on me being there and planned on letting me live in the end."

Ty Lee turned her focus to the stronghold as they departed. "Why would they do something so terrible?"

"We took something of theirs. We took their family. And they fought like hell to get it back. I did learn something from this." Mai and Ty Lee stared at her, wondering just what she could have learned from the deaths of thousands of men and women. "They are loyal to their friends and will go to great lengths to ensure their survival. Whoever can control their family and friends can control them."

"_I've got a few girls that want to bear his children for his love and kindness and loyalty to his friends." _Rehka's words rang in her mind. _He's very loyal to his friends… just like me. _She closed her eyes and watched the stronghold become smaller. The red specter had vanished and she understood what it meant. Naruto had felt so much hate, so much anger that it left an imprint on the land. It would be stained till the imprint's hatred was washed away. She closed her eyes and began pounded on the bigger mystery in her mind. _Naruto, just what are you?_

(-)

Days passed before they reached the village of No Name. Earthbenders lead them through the passages into the vast underground city with other assassins and spies aiding them along the way. Naruto, Zentrai, and Lyra were viewed as heroes for saving so many. In a war that had consumed so many for so many to actually come back from the clutches of the Fire Nation was a miracle in its own right.

It only took a matter of hours inside the village for the girls to feel better and feel the desire to repay their heroes for their efforts. Rehka told them they deserved it and the three were hauled by a bundle of girls to _thank _them for their rescue. Naruto for once was forced to accept less he wanted Rehka's wrath brought down upon him. Two girls with long brown hair warmed his bed that night with Zentrai having ten and Lyra having three.

When they were better and Zentrai and Naruto were back to a hundred percent they would begin their protection of the Avatar and his friends.

As Naruto slept with the two girls sleeping in his protective arms, Naruto reflected on what he'd done. He'd slain hundreds of men just for their sake. That was a big mistake on his part. He let his emotions control him again. And worse off was that Azula figured it out in the end. _She knows now that she can control us through them. They'll have to remain off the field from this point on. I'm sure Zentrai can work something out with Rehka to do that. _But he smiled in the end.

Though he never wanted to, in the end he had saved one messenger bird and sent it to Fire Lord Ozai with a formal reply to his offer. Naruto had flatly told him that they were not at war with him. They would destroy him and aid the Avatar to bring him down. He doubted that would sit well with him, but he knew it would make him feel better in the end. Naruto no longer had to play the hero and slay Azula, Zuko and Ozai. All he had to do was sit back and let the Avatar do it while he protected him.

_The only real problem will be getting him to accept us. We hunted him, captured him, and I admitted to having the power to kill him. I doubt he'll be happy to see either of us again. _He closed his eyes and thought of nothing else but the pleasures he'd endured for the two girls he slept with. Tomorrow he would wake and let them rest. They deserved it for letting him use their bodies the way he did. He did note one odd thing out if in the end. _They act just like Ty Lee. _


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki

Chapter 9

Naruto awoke to the presence of the two girls that he'd slept with again. It had been three days since their return to the village and they had yet to leave. They stayed mostly to rest before heading back out. It was great for Naruto because he was given a chance to see old friends again. He hadn't seen some of them in a few months and he was starting to miss them. And during this time both girls had continued to warm his bed at night. He had simply taken them in and enjoyed their company at night.

It was now that he noticed once more how they slept. The younger one of the two slept with one of his arms wrapped around her waist and was snuggled up to him. She made sure to press her breasts into his side and have one leg over him. When asked she admitted that she felt safer in his strong arms. The other would always curl into a ball and sleep next to him, generally holding onto one of his arm like a blanket. He admitted that it was sort of cute.

Smiling as he pulled himself free of the two, he quietly got out of bed and got dressed. He carefully slipped outside and took up residence in a simple chair that sat by his door and pulled out his book. He got through ten pages before the other door opened with tired Zentrai stepping out with a crutch. Naruto noted that he was still worse for wear and needed to support himself on the wall even with the crutch he had.

"Just wake up," Naruto asked quietly. Zentrai nodded and sat down against the wall with his head propped against it. "You should be in bed. Using the energy from the lightning bolt you took takes a lot out of you. You should still be in bed with the ten girls you have in there."

Zentrai laughed quietly. Even though he was one for mischief most of the time, when he was home he was well behaved. _"No. Even they get tired of me. Besides, I needed some fresh air. My room smells like gratuitous amounts of sex at the moment." _Naruto laughed as he turned the page on his book. Zentrai messaged his side and knelt over. _"You heard about what I'm doing now, right? About how I'm handing over my position as leader of the village?"_

Naruto nodded silently as he pondered on the conversation he'd had with his chosen successor.

The village worked something like Konoha did. There were two things needs to become a ruler in the village. The first was that you had to be very strong, very smart, and pure of heart. The person who chose you had to train you to run the place and also trusted you with their most vital of secrets. The second thing was that the person was also elected by the general public here in the village. So if they got someone that was very strong, very smart, but no one liked him because he had bad reputation then they could say they didn't want him as a ruler. The leader would then have to select another person to be his or her successor in the end.

Naruto had been chosen by Gen Fu when he was leader of the village, but turned it down once he realized the amount of work that would be put into it. Not to mention he claimed he wasn't bright enough to run the place. He often reflected on those words because of his dream to become Hokage. But when he had taken a step back to look at it, he honestly wondered if the dream was self implanted delusions or had been something he wanted because it was in his blood.

Naruto had been well liked for his power, his courage, his honor, and his loyalty to his family and friends. The qualities defined him and being a member of the Order of the White Lotus hadn't hurt his chances either since a lot of the people who did live down here where actual members of the same group. Most of these people, however, were either too old or simply people that lived under their philosophy and wanted understanding of the world and order.

But since Naruto had turned the offer down it was passed onto Zentrai who took it with great pride. Back when he was selected he was very well liked, as he is today, but back then he had been silent, calm, and nurturing before heading out after Gen Fu's death. When Gen Fu died and he took over, he realized that he too wasn't fit to be an everyday leader. Sure he was brilliant and a great tactician, but he didn't have the will to sit behind a desk, file documents that passed through the tower, and deal with the day to day struggles of the war. He was better at being out on the field and doing what came naturally.

As a result of this he asked Lyra to take over for him because she was better at it then he was. She took it, but said she would never take up the name or rank as the true leader since it was his job. He promised that when something very important came up that he'd come back and deal with it personally. And he had for a year before things started to take a turn for the worse in the war. When the Fire Nation began stepping up their attacks on the Earth Kingdom, Naruto, Lyra, and Zentrai had set out to start pushing them back as Mercenaries. Lyra became too cocky and branched off with a few of the others assassins and got in too deep. In the end they had to stop her and were ordered as an act of loyalty and comment to the Fire Nation to put her down.

When they explained what they had to do, she accepted it like it was a punishment and took her place at the Tower of Silence. But the mission needed verification and they had to take something back that actually could be identified as her. They had wanted a head, what they got was her arm. Naruto and Zentrai, with a few healers at her side, cut off her arm and took it to Commander Zhao. Being shamed the way she had, she vowed to make it up by obeying all orders given by Zentrai and had taken her spot here at the Tower of Silence in the village.

But now that the Fire Nation knew they had been tricked and that she was alive, Naruto was aware that they would have to make some changes and Lyra would go back out onto the field where she belonged.

Naruto took a deep breath and snapped his book shut. "Have you told Lyra yet? She'll wanna know about the changes that will be made soon."

The mute nodded silently and then held his side. He hissed both mentally and verbally to this. Even without vocal cords it was possible to give off angry hisses. Naruto was quickly to his feet to check on his friend. He assured him with a wave that he was fine and simply needed to lie back down. Naruto gently helped him back to his feet when Lyra emerged from her room with the door wide open and wearing only her pants and a mass of bandages over breasts.

"What are you doing out of your room?" She quickly took up the other side and helped carry the mute back into his room. She opened the door to find all ten girls naked and sleeping in various parts of the room. Only two of them were awake and those two that were awake were looking their bruises over. "You bruised them?" She asked with a bit of humor in her voice.

Zentrai chuckled and shook his head while one of the two girls explained. "Last night we had a bit of fight. Sinca over there started it by stating it was her turn to ride him. We protested because she had done it earlier, right before Red did it with him. I was supposed to be next and we had a fight about it. In the end we all got into a slap fight and she came out on top and rode him for another hour before passing out over there against the wall."

Naruto chuckled. "And that's why I'd prefer only one or two girls, Zentrai. Not ten, twenty, and even thirty." The blond paused in his conversation as he sat him down on the bed. The two girls moved to help them with him. When they got him situated in the bed Naruto asked, "How did you managed to please thirty girls at once anyways. Just with those two I had to use Shadow Clones just to give them so much pleasure that they fell asleep on me. How did you do it?"

"_Time and practice," _he answered as the two girls cuddled up to him. _"I'm going to go back to sleep. And please leave the door or something opened. We need some fresh air in here."_

"I completely agree," Lyra grumbled as she waved a hand in front of her face. The place did smell like gratuitous amounts of sex. "I'll leave the door open and Earthbend a few windows for you." She coughed. "How can you girls stand to be in here anyways?"

The one who spoke arched a brow. "Honestly, I have no sense of smell. My nose was broken years ago in a fight at the brothel and it's never worked sense. As for the others…" She let it hang there. Lyra caught the meaning and just went to work on the walls to give them some windows. She put them on the ceiling so no one would try to look in and see what he was doing. "Anyways, we'll let you know if something comes up with him, Lyra. If he gets any worse we'll notify you."

Naruto cracked a smile. "Mother hen," he laughed. Lyra grew a tick and chuckled. "Let's get out of here before Zentrai tries to seduce you."

Lyra said nothing as she moved to the door and walked out with the teen. Naruto simple started laughing as he got outside and moved back into his room. He made sure to look in on her room and wasn't surprised to see both girls she'd gotten stuck with already getting frisky with one another. Lyra joined in, removing the bandages to fully expose her tribal tattoos that covered her entire body.

_I'm sure Zentrai would have wanted to be the tattoo artist that did that to her, _he thought as he walked into his room.

(-)

Azula stared out at the Royal Palace from her spot in the Palin King. Her face was a mask of makeup to hide her injuries. Her head was bandaged to hide the markings Naruto and Zentrai had left on her. And at either side of her were Ty Lee and Mai, both as silent as the grave as they slowly made their way to the Fire Lord's chambers. During this time Azula wondered what her father was going to do to her.

Banishing her seemed unreal and pointless. Zuko was already banished. He didn't have another kid that she knew of to replace her and the throne for when he died. So banishment was too extreme for her actions.

An Agni Ki would do little good as well. If he wanted to make her suffer he'd simply let her heal on her own without the aid of healers. Her bruises and cracked bones would hinder her in a fight and they still hurt. Surely he'd notice them and let an Agni Ki slip through his fingers.

There was a list of things he could do to her, but all seemed pointless and unnecessary at the moment. The only thing he could do that would ruin her would be to take away all her support on the field to capture Zuko, Iroh, and the Avatar. But that in itself would be pointless. Iroh was strong and smart. He would know when to fight and when to run. Zuko was powerful and headstrong. He'd charge in without a moment's hesitation to fighter her and reclaim his honor. Naruto was strong, fast, smart, and brave. He would fight and outwit her when it came right down to it. And that wasn't even with Zentrai or Lyra being involved. And then there was the Avatar. He was fast, witty, strong, brave, and courageous. He'd slipped through Zhao's fingers, Zuko's fingers, Naruto's fingers, and even her own fingers.

She needed all the military help she could get to contend with the four. There would be no other way. She alone couldn't do it unless she wanted to die during the process.

By the time her thoughts became drawn to another set of ideas on her punishment she was in front of the door. She rose from her seat and stepped out. "I'll come get you when I'm ready to leave," she said sternly. The group bowed and rushed off. _I bet they know what's going to happen to me, _she thought as she watched them leave.

She shoved the door open and strolled in. She could see her father behind the wall of flames. If he was furious he didn't show it. She envied that ability. If it were Zuko it'd be easy to see. Her father very seldom seemed to get angry. Worried perhaps. But never angry.

She knelt down in his presence and waited for him to speak. She waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more before finally getting curious and raising her head. Her eyes widened as the fire in front of him lashed out like a whip and struck the ground in front of her after she rolled to the side. More flames lashed out, striking the ground in front of her. The ground groaned in protest to this as it was slowly set ablaze by the fire whips.

Azula didn't know what to do. She could fight him but that would end badly. No doubt his Imperial Firebenders were nearby. There was also the fact that he was the strongest Firebender in the land, meaning a straight up fight with him would end horribly for her.

The whips suddenly stopped when they made contact with her head and burned the bandages off. She patted out the flames and stared up at her father as he rose from his throne. "On your knees," he ordered with fire burning in his eyes. She dropped and he moved down onto the ground. She gulped. She didn't dare take her eyes off the blackened wood from his attacks. Yet she could still tell when his shadow overlaid her and the burn mark. "Raise your head. Let me look upon the markings they gave you."

She cursed her fortune and slowly did so. Apparently she didn't do it fast enough and flames nipped at her side as a result. Her head moved straight up and he stared at the twin markings she now had. Ozai knew that one was crafted by Naruto because of its shape and design. It was a rough guess on his end, but he knew it meant failure. It was a hybrid to their style of writing, but he could still make it out. He could tell with one was Zentrai's because unlike Naruto's, it was smooth and sharp, indicating that a blade had been used.

"Azula, what do they mean?"

In her mind she growled and went wide eyed. Her face was a mask, but her mind was scrambling for a good and believable lie. She couldn't come up with one. _Does he know, _she wondered. "Failure and Shame," she answered with remorse.

Ozai nodded and began pacing. He'd hoped she'd tell the truth immediately. He didn't want to fight his own daughter or burn her. Discipline her maybe, but not straight out brutalize her like he did Zuko. He did what he did to Zuko to teach him respect, not fear. Azula apparently didn't need to learn such a thing. If she needed to learn anything it was to follow orders to the letter.

"They marked me instead of killing me." She continued. Ozai half listened to her complaining now. "They slaughtered all of the troops, left me alive with these marks and probably left me to die in that blood soaked place. I think they actually planned on sparing me." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "They deserve to die."

Flames surrounded her. "I think I should call Zuko back and banish you instead." Ozai said simply. Azula lowered her head with wide eyes. "I trusted you with an important mission. A diplomatic mission at that. And you failed me in the end. What does that say about you, Azula?"

She gritted her teeth. "I underestimated them. I thought I was a few steps ahead of them. They were ahead of me. But I did learn something from this." Her father breathed deeply and sighed audible. "I learned that they can be controlled if we can capture those girls and force them to see things our way. I tried to do that by getting to the stronghold. I thought it would be impossible for them to take. Clearly I was wrong. It shalt happen again."

"No… it will not." Ozai snapped his fingers and two Imperial Firebenders appeared with a high ranking General between them. She hadn't seen him before. He had to be a newly appointed one. "Are War Minster has built a large drill to tunnel our way through Ba Sing Se's walls. We'll be taking the city by storm with it, as he has put all his hopes and dreams into it at the moment. General Han will launch a full attack with our troops in the hopes of taking it down from the inside."

Ozai motioned to the man and he gave a brief nod before turning to Azula. "I am to understand that your target is now aligned with the Avatar's group, correct?" She nodded without speaking. He took a deep and felt like he was walking on ice with flames beneath it. "We understand that they are traveling together and will possibly help with the Avatar's training. The only secure spot to train him would be in the walls of Ba Sing Se. I'd like…" Ozai coughed and he bit back on his tongue. "You're to head out with us to take the city. Your target will more than likely be there and should give you a chance to capture him."

Azula turned her full attention to her father. "Who will be in command?"

"General Han will be in charge of the operation to take the city. You only have command of your two friends. You will use them to capture Naruto and Zentrai. You will bring them to me alive and unharmed. The Avatar can be either way."

She blanched at that. That alone was impossible. Capturing the Avatar unharmed had only been done once by a skilled set of archers before Zhao had been killed at the North Pole. And even then he got away because of the Blue Spirit. And he wanted them captured alive and unharmed. Naruto couldn't be captured because he was a light sleeper and always slept with some sort of weapon on hand. There was also the fact that he was stronger than anyone she'd ever seen using pure physical strength. He was faster than anyone she'd actually seen. And he could make copies of himself. And as for Zentrai… well he was just as hard if not more so with his abilities.

She hid all of this from them though. She couldn't let them see that she was actually shaken by the orders. How could anyone not be that had seen either of the two assassins fight? She sighed silently and gave a sharp nod.

"I understand," she said quietly. Ozai smiled as she stood up. She wore the marks she had gotten proudly now. Maybe a bit too proudly, as if she wanted everyone to see them and believe them only to be made fun of when she did fail or bring shame to them. Maybe she just wanted to prove the marks wrong or use them against her enemies that could read them. Either way, she seemed to enjoy having them now.

She turned on her heels and left without a word.

(-)

Zentrai and Lyra both sat in front of a golden stone inside the villages' garden. The place was an act of unnatural nature. With only the green light during the day and the white crystals during the night to represent the stars, trees had grown as the Tower of Silence. It was here that Naruto, Lyra, and Zentrai spent most of their time when they were home. The stone they stood before was odd in the fact that it was golden in color but not made of gold. It shinned brightly in the darkness like a beacon of hope for those that had none left.

Naruto had once said that it reminded him of the Memorial Stone back at his home village. Neither of them had ever asked anything about it, but they knew it was something that tied him down to his place. The stone didn't have the names of those that died carved into it. It actually had portraits of people that had died and were placed around it. They were put in small frames and left around the stone as a way of remembering the dead.

The two had come to see the stone to feel closer to Gen Fu once more. His smiling face was always a beacon of hope and could wash away even the darkest of feelings that anyone had. When the portrait was done he was young, in his thirties, and looked very handsome to all women he came across.

Zentrai messaged his side again and Lyra quickly moved to his side. "You shouldn't rub it so hard," she explained. He rolled his eyes and continued to message his side. Lyra slapped his hand away from the spot. "Stop it. Or you're going to make it worse." She gave him a soft glare and he turned away. She sighed and turned back to Gen Fu. "I wish he were here now. He'd know how to control you."

"_One could say that same for you,"_ Zentrai grumbled. His hand went back to his side and again it was knocked away. _"It's my body! I'll do what I want to it!" _

"You shouldn't be putting so much pressure on it. You don't have your weapons on you so you can't use that as an excuse." The mute sighed and tried to stand. He failed and she was on her feet to help him. "You shouldn't have even left your room. After taking the energy from the lightning bolt, you're body is in no means ready for any sort of movement."

"_And yet you let me have sex with ten girls." _A tick grew on her head. Zentrai failed to notice it. _"I'll be staying here for a while. Rehka wants me to teach her girls some combat arts for self-defense. I don't blame her. That was something we should have done a long time ago. Funny how everything seems to work now. She was asked by Gen Fu to take his spot when he died. She declined it. I gave the position to her for her to do your job and she declined it. And now, after her girls were captured, she takes it. I sometimes wish I truly understood the mind of a woman. It might make things easier for me in the end."_

Lyra said nothing to this. She was just focused on getting him back to his room. She carried him through the streets with little problem. By the time she had gotten him to his room, the mute was near exhausted and could barely manage to stand on his own as Lyra forced the door open. She maneuvered him to his bed and sat him down with care. The girls that had once been in his room were gone, leaving him to his lonesome.

"_You'd make a great mom with the way you treat me when I'm like this." _He said with a smile.

She blushed and pulled the covers over him. "I'm not giving you a goodnight kiss though." She turned and walked towards the door. She hesitated and then walked out. Zentrai stared at the door for a few minutes before passing out again. He was too tired to do anything else but sleep.

(-)

Naruto eyed the changes to the Tower of Silence. The floors remained the same, the portraits also remaining the same. The differences now were the plants, the new furniture that decorated the hallways and waiting room, and the newly painted walls and doors. The place looked strange, but still felt like home. It was like when parents decided to just randomly move stuff around for no reason. It still was a little strange to look at.

Naruto moved through the waiting room to the back room where an artist was drawing the portrait of Rehka already. She wore flowing green and gold robes where her hair cut short. Her hair ended at the base of her neck now and her face was covered with blotches of makeup to hide the bruises she had. Normally she never would have done such a thing, but since this was a portrait of her and her girls wanted her to look pretty, she had no choice but to do so.

"Come in," she urged. The artist dabbed his brush and gave a crisp nod to the teen without looking. "I trust everything is going well?"

"I was just looking at the new place," he said. He purposely dodged her question. She noted it and sighed. "Zentrai walked out to the Memorial Garden." He answered quickly. "Lyra got him back in his bed and is now resting."

"Shouldn't you be resting?" The artist turned one eye to the teen to gauge his response. Naruto took a deep breath and smiled. The artist resumed his painting while Rehka continued. "I talked with Zentrai about a new name for the tower. He said I should name it the Tower of Beautiful Women. Personally, I don't much care for renaming the tower, but it is customary to rename it when leaders change. What do you think I should name it?"

Naruto shifted slightly and then leaned against the wall. The renaming of the tower was something only the leaders could do. With Rehka taking over for Zentrai, she was obligated to change the name of the tower to match her qualities. The Tower of Silence had been renamed by Zentrai twice. In the beginning it was called the Tower of Blades for his ability with blades, but got renamed after a lot of people made the joke that it should have been the Tower of Silence. Not wanting to anger the people, he changed the name to the Tower of Silence, though to most people it was still the Tower of Blades.

Naruto shrugged, showing he didn't care about the name. She smiled at this and straightened up a little. The artist groaned a bit but said nothing to this.

"Zentrai will be staying here in the village to teach my girls some defensive arts as you know. So the first thing I'm ordering you to do is to take Lyra and find the Avatar. You're to protect him. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I've got a group of my girls seeing to your bags and food for the trip. We're trying to give you enough so that you and Lyra will be okay for the trip. Rai can forge for himself as we've seen." Naruto nodded and turned to leave. "Please be safe. I'd hate to lose you as well. I've already lost my actual children to this war. I cannot imagine what will happen should I lose you three. So please be careful." Naruto smiled and gave her a quick nod before leaving.

The artist stopped painting and smiled at her. "That boy doesn't know how to die, I think. He will live. I know he will." She smiled and he continued painting.

(-)

Two days passed before Naruto and Lyra left the village. They left shortly after Rehka's ascension to leader of the village. They wanted to see this for both her and because they wanted to see how things turned out. The tower's new name, like Rehka, was met with great joy. She did in fact name the tower, the Tower of Beautiful Women. Zentrai of course when the tower got its new name pumped his fist into the air and started screaming in joy.

Before they had left they also had time to enjoy another night of women. Naruto drank deep from both girls like Lyra did before leaving. Naruto was a little freaked to know that both girls wanted to have his kids, but they also told him that they wouldn't care if he didn't raise them. Naruto felt a little strange to know that, but they assured him that they'd take care of it if they did in fact become pregnant. Hearing that, Naruto had opted to stop having sex with them and just leave them be.

The next day they had left early in the morning and without alerting Zentrai. After traveling for twelve hours they found a place to stop in a thick forest just outside of the rock caverns. Naruto's fur he got form the Flying Bison had led the two of them here. Thanks to Rai, Naruto was certain that they were in the right area. So they decided to set up camp and scout out the place in the morning.

There was just one problem with that. Rai had yet to eat and was now off on his own to hunt for his dinner. Naruto, not thinking straight, had sent Lyra with him in the hopes that nothing bad would happen. Naruto very seldom did this because Lyra wasn't one that Rai liked and would constantly disobey orders from her. But Naruto knew that Rai knew that he couldn't eat the Avatar's friends. What he failed to take into account was the Flying Bison and the Flying Lemur that also lived with them.

Lyra walked patiently behind the hungry beast as it sniffed the ground and wagged its tail about. It was rather cute to watch something so dangerous act like a happy little dog. Before long Lyra found what he'd been tracking. She hastily wrapped an arm around his neck and tried to haul him off in a different direction. "You can't have the Bison," she whispered. Rai paid her no mind and shrugged her off with ease.

When Lyra fell, Rai jumped down into the canyon and ran straight at the Flying Bison and its friends. A blast of wind had it flipping end over end and making Rai slam into the canyon wall. Lyra watched from the sidelines hoping that she wouldn't have to intervene. If only she could have been so lucky. Rai attacked everything, forgetting the orders given by Naruto to not eat the Avatar's group. Rai charged after Sokka, only to be pushed to the side by a massive rock that jetted out of the ground.

Rai whimpered slightly and then growled at Toph. Toph stared it down with her milky white eyes and waited for a chance to attack. Instead of attacking, Rai sank into the ground and vanished in a plume of black smoke. "Huh," Toph gawked. Vibrations alerted her to Rai's presence behind her and she turned to attack. She wasn't fast enough to stop him. Rai tackled Toph to the ground and pinned her under his massive foot. "Get off of me!"

She shoved both hands forward and knocked Rai in the face with a hard boulder. Rai flipped end over end before landing on his feet and snarling at the group. Toph got to her feet and glared at the thing.

"What is that thing?" She spat out some dirt and waited for a reply.

"I don't know." Aang turned and looked to Momo and Appa. "Get out of here before it can get either of you!" Appa growled and fly off with Momo tagging along for the ride.

Rai watched his pray take flight and whimpered slightly before turning to face the teens. He snarled at them and then charged them. The three benders moved forward and attacked. Rai dodged the rising earth by sinking into the ground and vanishing in a plume of black smoke. Aang was ready for the attack from behind and swung his staff, sending a wall of wind at their backs. Rai appeared from the side, evading the wind but not Katara's water whip attack.

Rai turned and snarled at her. He charged and Sokka appeared, boomerang in hand. He threw it and he jumped to the side, knocking it down into the ground. Aang dropped down in front of them and swung his staff at him. The torrent of wind pushed him back, but did little make him leave. Rai simply sank into the ground and vanished in the same black smoke. The group stood back to back waiting for it to appear again.

Rai didn't appear. "Where'd it go?" Katara asked. She took a step forward and the group parted ways a bit. Rai appeared behind them and tackled Katara to the ground. Katara screamed just a slab of earth rose and knocked the hungry animal in the face. Rai staggered back and was struck again. He collapsed to the ground but got back up on shaky feet. "Thanks, Toph."

"That wasn't me!" Toph exclaimed. "There's another Earthbender around here!"

Rai began to whimper as he dropped to the side. Lyra moved to his side and shook her head. "I told you that you can't attack them! But did you listen to me? No!" Lyra scolded. Rai jumped back to his feet and aimed to bite her when Naruto appeared, clamping down on Rai's mouth to keep him from killing her. Lyra fell on her butt as a result while Aang and the group stared at his arrival. "Naruto… I'm sorry I couldn't keep Rai from attacking them! He's hungry!"

The blond rolled his eyes and released Rai. Rai stepped back and glared at the teens. He took a step forward only to be halted by his master. "I'm well aware of that, Lyra. I'm sorry I sent you out here to help keep him in line. I'm used to Zentrai being able to do it with Shibaru." He said simply. Lyra seemed relieved to know he wasn't angry with her. Naruto turned and found it funny to see how the teens were staring at him. "I'm sorry for what Rai has done. He's hungry and will eat anything that he deems meat."

Sokka pulled out a blunted weapon with a sphere on one end and razor teeth for the blade. "What are you doing here? Are you here to capture Aang again?!"

Naruto raised his hands and the others assumed a fighting stance. Naruto didn't show any shock to this. He seemed prepared for a fight, but he stood with his arms crossed. "No." He answered simply. They looked at him funny. "I'm not here to capture the Avatar. I'm here only to ensure that he survives to do his job."

"And what about last time?!" Katara screamed. "You tried to capture him with those girls and from I understand, succeeded and left him to fight that Firebending girl!"

The blond sighed and messaged his nose. "I was ordered by the Fire Lord to capture or kill a target. He never said who it was or what they were. I was told that he was simply a threat and needed to be taken care of. At the time I was going to do it until I learned he was the Avatar. My goal was to get close enough to the Fire Lord to kill him and then kill Azula and Zuko, leaving the place in chaos. With no one to rule them, they would fall on themselves and destroy each other unless Iroh took his birthright."

They dropped their stances a bit. "Then what are you doing here now?" Toph asked. She had detected no trace of deceit in his voice and knew he wasn't lying to them. He was being honest with them. He wanted to kill the Fire Lord and Azula, but his voice had hesitated at the mention of Zuko.

Lyra moved forward, her single arm on her chest. "We're only here to help you now. We have no intention of killing or harming you. Rai is simply hungry and requires large sources of food to sustain himself." The group of teens looked to each other before sliding back into combat stances. Naruto sighed while Lyra turned a hateful glare to Naruto. "This is all your fault for being tricked!" She kicked him in the shin. Naruto had a brief moment to wonder why she'd blame him for doing his job before he starting dancing around on one leg holding his shin.

Now the teens were really confused. Sokka put an end to it with a loud cough. "It's nice to see you two fighting one another, but if you don't leave, we'll attack." His warning carried some meaning, but the two older teens weren't fooled by it. Sure they'd attack, and lose, but they'd still attack. "So either leave or get ready for a fight."

Naruto sighed loudly. "Very well," he conceded. "We'll leave. But understand that my orders are to protect you. If I must do it without being in your group or in sight, I will. But I will always be in your shadow to watch and protect you. And there's nothing you can do to stop me." He turned on his heels and walked off.

The teens watched him go, ready for a fight just in case. Just as before, Naruto left with clear intentions. Aang was left puzzled by this, and didn't sleep very well with the knowledge that they were out there in the shadows and watching them. It haunted him all night. What was worse was that he couldn't find them when he went to look for them. All he found that was clearly a sign from either of the two was the large blood pool that had been left behind by a large animal, most likely the Saber tooth Moose Lion that had attack Sokka during his first time learning Earthbending.

After a few hours of searching and giving up, Aang was finally able to go to sleep.

(-)

Azula stared off into the distance with a hateful glare in her eyes. It would be two to two and a half weeks before the drill made it to the outer walls of Ba Sing Se. During this time she had the chance to think and plan on her course of action against the Avatar, Naruto, and Zentrai. She had worked up a plan to capture them, but doing it would require a sacrifice in the end. She had her choices of her two best friends, but neither of them would do any good dead in the end.

_Two and half weeks, _she thought as she surveyed the map of Ba Sing Se again. _I'll need more than what I have to achieve this. But where do I get what I need when everything I need is out of reach? _She stared at the information they had on the city and its forces. _I need something that I can control that my father can't stop me from controlling. Ba Sing Se's army would be too hard. Perhaps they have something else I can use? _

The Fire Princess smiled as she leaned back on her bed. Her injuries reminded her of what Lyra had done to her. She could always capture her and use her to control him. She knew that would be a very big long shot, but it was all she could muster at the moment. She didn't have a force to use on her own. All she had was her nimble team. She cursed her fate and retired to her bed. She could think more on it in the morning.

(-)

Naruto shifted slightly in his spot in the trees. He had watched Aang search for him. Rai had been lucky to have vacated the area of his kill when the Avatar showed up. Naruto had no doubts in his mind that Aang would try and attack him, but part of him said otherwise to this. Now as the Avatar slept next to Appa, Naruto was left wondering if this was the right. Guarding him from the shadows would be difficult. Assassinations from the shadows were easier when he compared it to this.

_I'm used to taking a direct approach to things, not lingering in the shadows, _he thought bitterly.

He turned back to their camp. He had forced Lyra to find the biggest tree and set up their campsite in it. The biggest tree was little over half a mile away, but it was for the better. After their confrontation with Aang and his group, Naruto figured they'd all come looking for them. What better place to hide then in a tree.

With a deep breath he summoned two clones to watch them sleep while he took off for their campsite. It would be a few minutes before he reached it. When he reached the campsite he summoned the other clones to guard them until morning. After giving out orders he crashed into the thickest set of branches he could find and fell fast asleep next to Lyra. His thoughts before drifting into a quite slumber turned to Zentrai and Rehka. He chuckled silently, figuring that the teen was trying his hardest to put this all off and have pointless sex with all the girls.

(-)

Two girls dropped to the ground from exhaustion. Rehka stood off to the side with tired eyes as Zentrai drilled into the girls everything he could on the combat arts. They were tired, bruised, and nearly unconscious on their feet. But even with all of this Zentrai drilled into them without mercy. As a friend he was kind and caring. As a teacher he was ruthless and demanding. As the girls fell one by one, Zentrai began to feel disgusted with them only to remember that they weren't trained for this.

"_That will be all for tonight," _he said to all of them. The remaining girls crashed to the ground and began snoring. Some were already sleeping long before he had given them the okay. The mute leaned against the wall he was near and held his side again. Rehka took note of this and moved to his side, gently pulling his arm away. _"I'm fine, mother. Really."_

She scolded at him and forced him to stand upright. "Okay or not, you needn't be in such a rush with my girls. They are tired, frail, and use to only pleasuring men and women. I know you wish to return to Naruto and Lyra, but you must take things slow for the time being. Your body has yet to heal from the overuse of energy you stored up and you will require days of rest before you may even leave." She slung one of his arms around her neck and began heading for his home. "You are all to return home for rest. There will be no training tomorrow." Zentrai might have wanted to say something about that, but let it slide. He no longer had the power to order people around.

Rehka moved swiftly across the sidewalk and straight to his room. The door was already open for him by one of the guards. Zentrai had nothing to say to the man. He knew it was Den and that he'd want to talk to him about the new changes, but ultimately he was just assigned to guard him in his weakened state.

She tucked him into bed and stood up to her full height. Zentrai laughed softly. _"I remember when I first looked up at you, mother. Back then you were a mountain of maternal love and discipline back then. Even now you still are. I just sort of find that funny."_

She laughed with him and remembered that day too. "You were a snippy young brat back then until I managed to discipline you in a way I don't like using." She turned and tucked him in tight. "But you've changed so much in that time. I really do worry about you. Children shouldn't have to fight the battles of the adults. But you've taken them onto your shoulders and fought so that one day your children might not have to fight."

The mute turned away as she kissed him gently on the cheek. She wished him goodnight and left.

_I told you once before, _he thought, _that I'd die for you, mother. _


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki

Chapter 10

Naruto stared down at the teens from his perch. He was scouting them out at the moment. Watching them. Waiting for something bad to happen that would require his immediate intervention. Of course watching the teens was the least of his worries at the moment. Rai's little stunt a week back had caused all of the teens to become edgy at night and while they trained. Aang made sure to always be in an area where he thought it would be difficult to watch him. How very wrong he was.

"What are they doing?" Lyra asked suddenly.

"What?" Naruto turned to face her, his eyes blinking in the process.

"I asked what they were doing."

Naruto sighed audibly and glared at her. "God damn it! I am getting so sick of answering that stupid question now!"

"You have better eyes than me! I can't see shit from up here! I'm not going to play with my pussy all day long!" She snapped back.

The blond glowered at her for a moment before turning his gaze back to the teens. They were about a quarter of a mile away and watching them train in the vast desert lands. At the moment though, Aang seemed more interested in playing his flute than anything else. Sokka was yapping about something while Toph and Katara seemed pleased with his unhappy state. "They're just talking." Naruto answered after a brief moment of hesitation.

Lyra sighed. "What are they talking about?"

The former Jinchuuriki banged his head on the ground. "If this is your idea on how to replace Zentrai's way of acting, you're doing it wrong. He doesn't ask stupid questions. He asks utterly dumb questions and argues about what I say someone is doing. You need to get some new stuff, Lyra." Rai purred in agreement while the Earthbender contemplated on hurting the blond. After a brief moment of quite, Naruto suddenly said, "And I'd be dodging knives by now. If you wanna hurt me next time. Go right on ahead. I heal quickly, remember?"

She growled and stormed off, leaving the blond chuckling.

"One point to me," he called out to her retreating form. She stopped for a moment and then stomped her foot on the ground. Naruto was struck in the chest by a small piece of earth. Instead of curling into a ball in pain, he laughed and rolled over holding his gut. He just kept laughing and Lyra just kept walking. Naruto watched her go with a smile and turned his gaze back to the Avatar's group.

(-)

Lyra moved straight back to their campsite. She wasn't angry with Naruto. Annoyed maybe. But not angry. She could never be angry with him unless he truly did something stupid. She approached the campsite and then stared off into the distance. She smiled and snapped her foot into the ground. Dust flew in a straight line and a boulder cracked. "If you're going to sneak up on me, Zentrai, please do it without alerting me."

A moment later, Zentrai and Den appeared with a girl in between them. Lyra recognized the girl as one of the Water Tribe female warriors that lived in the village. She was also a member of the torture and information squads back at the village. She wore the official kimono styled clothing of the Water Tribe people, but trimmed it down for the spring weather they were going through. She kept her hair short and just below the base of her neck. Around her waist were evil looking knives and pouches. The pouches scared people more because of the tools she kept inside them. Thin needles and other objects of her carrier lay inside them.

"_Good to see you, too? Don't even bother with a friendly hello I see. And here I thought you missed me," _Zentrai sent to her. She smiled innocently and looked to the others. The mute gave a nod to Den and the girl.

Den stepped forward with a piece of paper in him. "I'm not a delivery boy," he snapped while handing it to her. She rolled her eyes and took the parchment from him. As she read it, he explained things. "Len and I managed to get some new people to interrogate. Turns out they knew a little more than what we hoped for. The Fire Nation is building something near the walls of Ba Sing Se… And it's almost complete."

"And you want us to go and wreck it?"

Len stepped forward with a clear look of annoyance on her face. "No," she said with a rough voice. "We sent a word of warning to General Sung to let him know about it. When we asked him if he wanted out help, he happily turned us down." She forced a smile.

"And you couldn't get in touch with anyone else because…" She waved her hand around slightly.

Den took a deep breath before answering. "The will of the Earth Kingdom cannot be brought down by the evil of the Fire Nation. We will stand tall and strong. We will defeat whatever they have to throw at us. No one has broken through our walls before and never will," he explained as though he were reading from a book of some kind.

Lyra got the message. The General didn't believe this was a threat and wanted to deal with it on his own. Noble but stupid.

"There is some good news to this though." Lyra arched a brow when Len said that. "Two high value targets are currently on the thing. One of them is the famed General Han and the other is Azula herself. From what we can gather, her father is very unhappy with how things worked out between Naruto and the Fire Nation, and is forcing her to capture him without bringing harm to him. We think he wants her dead."

"_If that's the case, Naruto would just anger him and never kill her then," _Zentrai informed them. They all nodded. _"As for me… I'd capture her and hand her over to you two. We would never get a ransom out of her, that much is certain. But a wealth of knowledge and then a sex slave would be overwhelming for us."_

Len dismissed the last part but said, "The wealth of knowledge she has would be nice. I'm sure you would finally get to find out who your father is, Den, if we captured him."

Den shrugged that off. True he was of Fire Nation blood, but only through the act of his mother. His mother was a spy that had to get information from a Commanding Officer on the field and she was ordered to do it by any means necessary. She practically threw herself at him just to get information from him. In the end she got what she needed and left, only to have him nine months later. He looked more like a citizen of the Earth Kingdom than the Fire Nation, but there was no mistaking the golden eyes that marked all Fire Nation people.

"Like I'd care," he snapped. Lyra shrugged his heated tone off and placed her hand on her hip. Den cracked his neck and started fiddling with one of his hooked daggers. "We did what were ordered to do. Hand over the Intel we got and drop Zentrai off to you guys. He's trained the girls as best he claims he can, and Rehka sent him back out into the field. You orders are to protect the Avatar at all costs. Nothing but his life matters… Or so I've been told."

Lyra gave a curt nod as the two torture members began trotting away. Zentrai turned and faced them with a smile. _"She'll put out for you tonight if you promise to lick her!" _Den waved at him without going rigid. Len on the other hand did and spared a harsh glance for Zentrai. The mute laughed as they slipped out of eyesight and turned back to face Lyra. _"So how have things been without me?"_

"Horrible. Naruto's watching the Avatar's group right now and our first meeting didn't go too well since Rai decided he wanted the Bison for dinner." The mute winced to this while Shibaru trotted to find Rai. Lyra continued though. "Things have been going smoothly if you don't count that though. No one has tried to take out the Avatar since they got to this area and he's been training nonstop. If he's done anything other than train, it was his attempt at locating us just to see what we wanted. That's about it."

Zentrai nodded and then turned his focus to the rim of the forest. Without a word spoken or thought, Lyra nodded and led the way to Naruto.

(-)

Naruto watched the teens with hawk-like eyes as they continued to talk amongst themselves. They were clearly arguing about something. _I wish Zentrai were here, _he thought. Zentrai would have been able to tell him exactly what they were talking about.

Naruto understood enough about his powers to know that even hearing things had to be processed in the brain by thinking. Even if you never thought about it, what was said to you did actually run through your mind. This allowed Zentrai to understand what someone was saying to another person even if they were out of hearing range at the moment. So long as he could make contact with their brain he could actually do this.

But Naruto didn't have Zentrai yet and he was dumbly aware that Zentrai was inbound. Rehka had promised to let him leave after two weeks if he hadn't fully trained her girls. If he did take it seriously, which Naruto figured he would but would still make jokes about, Zentrai would be here within a week and a half, maybe less depending on how hard he pushed them.

With that, Naruto continued to watch the teens as they chatted with one another.

He sighed and sat up while brandishing one of his knives. It was a combat knife, one that was given to him as a gift by the mute. Naruto very seldom used the thing for anything other than to entice fear in those he would have to torture. The thing was very scary looking. It was long, curved, and had a row of razor slits in it that made the blade serrated and gave it the chip form it held. If one looked at it from a different angle it actually looked a bit more like a machete with how thick the blade was and its length.

He put the weapon away and watched the teens slowly start to move out. They packed up their gear and threw it on top of Appa. The massive beast was soon mounted and they flew off into the distance. Naruto stood up and watched them leave before pulling out his bundle of fur he had from Appa during his time tracking them. _Let's find Rai, _he thought.

Naruto jumped down from the cliff he was on and started moving back into the forest. The sky would do Aang no harm less he did something foolish. So Naruto had no worries about taking things slow. He could work better with that. Give them some space and follow in an hour after lunch. Surely they could get themselves into that much trouble in that short of a time span. Right?

The blond moved towards the campsite and paused for a moment before smiling. Zentrai was back, yet Naruto wasn't at the campsite yet. There were two reasons the former Jinchuuriki knew this. The first was that Zentrai carried an aura with him that was more or less felt like when someone was watching you from the shadows. It was a creepy feeling to have around and one you couldn't shake off. The second reason was because Naruto could feel him probing his mind already for information on where they stood with the Avatar's group.

After years of working with the man, one got used to the feeling of having your mind probed by him. The feeling was strange, small, but there. It was like when you did something that made you relax and feel safe with the world. That was how it felt when he probed your mind. You felt calm, cool, and well relaxed. But the feeling would pass after a split second. It was something he had no control over and anyone that did know he was what he was would misplace it as a simple craving or yearning for something that made them feel that way.

When the teen got to the campsite he was greeted by the sight of Shibaru pawing Rai in the face. It was sort of funny to watch something that looked like a dog pawing something that looked more cat-like than anything else and was extremely hostile when touched by anyone other than those they knew and allowed to touch them. Honestly it looked like a man's version of a slap fight with Rai being the obvious loser in the match.

Off near the campfire where Lyra was cooking was Zentrai. He was pinned to the earth by earth shackles, no doubt created by Lyra and seemed overjoyed at the moment. He even sported a red handprint on his face. Clearly he had done something stupid and got slapped by Lyra, if not someone else.

The blond watched Lyra for a moment as she continued to cook their food. "What'd I miss," he asked with a smile. Lyra shot the teen a warning glare and he smiled. Seeing her angry just confirmed what he thought. Putting his hands into his pockets, he dismissed her hostile look and turned to Zentrai. "The Avatar's group just took off. I'm not sure where they're heading, but they're heading out. We'll give them an hour before we head out. I doubt it will take us that long to catch up with them."

Zentrai nodded from his spot on the ground and said nothing to either of them. Naruto dismissed his silence for his own version of a friendly greeting though. With Zentrai, a friendly hello could be anything from a nod to a full blown tackle glop.

"After we've had lunch we'll head out. While Lyra is cooking, you and I will get our gear loaded up and ready to move," Naruto explained. They all nodded and began doing their chores.

In less than an hour the campsite was brought down. Sleeping bags were stuffed into bags or rolled up for transport. The fire used to warm their meals was put out and buried beneath the earth by Lyra. When it came time to start chasing after the teens, Naruto brought out the bundle of fur for Rai and Shibaru. The two sniffed it and pointed in the same direction. Grabbing their gear and loading it up on Rai, Naruto gave the order to head out.

Lyra ran on the earth, forming to large mounds that helped her run across the burned up earth. Zentrai road on the back of Shibaru while Naruto took point with Rai. In less than two hours they stopped at a small village in the middle of the desert. Naruto had never been here, but Zentrai seemed to know something about the place. It was also really small. So small in fact that Naruto doubted the Fire Nation would want anything to do with the small village.

The village was surrounded by weathered walls that had seen better days probably a hundred years ago. They rose only a few two meters into the air and the gates that were the only way in swung from one hinge while the other door seemed to be only partially intact. The builds looked like they had just been thrown together with no care in the world for them. They sported dents, cracks, and some of them had patchwork done to them that actually needed more patchwork done on them.

The only thing that seemed to be worth anything in the village was a crater in the middle of the village that held a smoldering piece of ice. This is what gave the village its name.

"The Misty Palms Oasis," Lyra grumbled the name of the village and swore in her mind. Zentrai actually laughed. She shot him an annoyed glance. "Of course you'd find this place fun to be. Isn't this one of the areas you basically grew up in?" He smirked, showing her that he actually appreciated the dig. "Are they sure they came here? This doesn't seem like the kind of place I'd wanna hide out."

Naruto dismissed her question. Rai had never been wrong before. And Shibaru may not be as great as Rai, but even if she agreed with Rai they were on the right track.

The team moved through the town and broke up to search for information. Naruto moved into a bar and ordered a quick drink while looking everyone over. Everyone inside the place looked like bandits, murderers, thieves, and mercenary wannabes. He also noted that neither of them seemed like the type to hold information without money being involved.

"You're not from around here, are you mister?" Naruto cocked his head to the side and noted that the bartender was speaking to him. He looked at the man and then tossed out a gold piece for his drink. The man stared at it, bit it, stared at it again, and then pocketed it as he leaned down onto the countertop and said, "What are you looking for?"

Naruto swiveled around in his chair and hunched over. "I'm looking for a bald teen with arrow tattoos over his body. He came into this village about an hour ago, maybe thirty minutes ago in fact. He was carrying a wooden staff and traveling with three other people. Two girls and one male. All of them teens. Have you seen anyone like that?"

The bartender smiled. "Can't say that I have." Naruto withdrew his scary knife and slammed it down into the table. The man jumped, as well as the others in the place. He stammered with his words for a moment and then answered with a clear set of vocals. "I think I might have seen them. A group of teens traveled with some guy that's been looking for a library that's supposedly built out in the desert. They left about twenty to thirty minutes ago."

Naruto pulled his knife free and stood up. "Thanks for information." He walked out and soon spotted trouble. Lyra had a few of the Sandbenders surrounding her and trying something. Rai was quick to act by jumping into the fray of things and pinning two of them to the ground under his massive frame. This stopped the others from what they were doing to try and tame Rai. They failed to get near him without running the risk of getting clawed and bitten in half.

"Is there something I can help you gentlemen with?" Naruto made sure his voice carried. The men turned and gave each other a blank stare behind their glasses before shrugging off to the nearest shadow. The assassin watched them leave before turning to Lyra. "You okay?"

She nodded with a grunt. "Yeah… Those men were just trying to put the moves on me and I was denying them at every turn. They were probably about to get hostile with me though." Naruto nodded mutely and waited for Zentrai to show up. He walked out of a building with another red mark on his face. Naruto didn't have to ask about it. "What'd you learn?"

"_I learned that the locals don't know what a brothel is," _he answered. Naruto dismissed this with a snort. The mute smiled though. _"I did learn that our little group just wondered off into the desert to look for something. They're with a teacher from Ba Sing Se University, head of Anthropology. He's here looking for a legendary library, the Library of Wong Shi Tong." _Shibaru whimpered while Rai started growling. The two other teens eyed them for a moment before Naruto gave a nod to Zentrai. Even without the nod he'd start asking questions. _"You've heard of him?" _

Naruto and Lyra wouldn't be able to hear this conversation. Shibaru and Rai were both former Spirits that had given up their immortality to become mortal beings. They wanted to "Live" as the people of the world called it. They wanted to feel, to touch, to starve, to be full, be happy and sad, and to be one with the world. Being immortal had withered away at them and they were left with the feelings of being unimportant to the world. To counter this they came to the mortal world and dawned physical bodies. But these bodies couldn't speak to others unless they too were Spirits or in Zentrai's case a telepath.

Shibaru nodded vigorously alongside her friend. _"It was a long time ago that that Spirit started his library. He started filling it with books, tomes, scrolls, any piece of parchment he could get his hands on since the day humans first learned to draw and write on the walls of their caves they once called their homes." _Zentrai nodded and still continued to be marveled by her voice. It was heavenly to him to hear a woman with such a voice. The large beast continued her conversation. _"He is an ancient Spirit, and one that is not to be taken likely. He holds all the wisdom of the world not just in his library but in himself as well. He has studied everything that has even been written, whether it is on stone or a piece of animal hid. He is very protective of his knowledge and wishes to keep it all to himself last we saw of him. I can lead you to this place, but it will not be an easy trip."_

Zentrai turned and relayed all of this to the others while Rai gave his chosen mate a hard and pleading look. Naruto took notice of the "Silent" conversation that passed between the two Spirits but made no move to stop them. As Zentrai finished filling them in, Naruto suddenly sighed. "We'll need water and food and warmer clothes for this. I doubt this will take a single day to get there." Rai began to whimper even more. Not because he didn't want to go to this place, but because he knew, like Naruto, that there was next to no life in the desert, meaning he'd have to eat either the really big bugs, or go without using his vanishing ability.

"What are we going to do for food with Rai and Shibaru?" Rai's ears perked upon hearing Lyra's question. When food was involved, he was all ears, just like Shibaru. Naruto dismissed her with a wave of his hand. Either he had that planned out already or wasn't that worried about it. Lyra shrugged her one shoulder and gave the two beasts a quick glance. "I'm sure that there's animal life in the desert. But we should pack up some meat just for them in case we're out there for a prolong set of time."

"_Agreed," _Zentrai answered. Naruto rolled his eyes. _"Unless of course, you have something else planned for them to eat."_

To answer this question, Naruto motioned a set of Sandbenders that were on their way out of the village. There were dozens of them and none of them seemed too happy at the moment. "I made quite a scene not two minutes right here and then in the bar awhile ago. If we're lucky, a few of them might follow us and supply them with food. If not, I'll have no problems handing over some of my food to Rai, as I'm sure you'll have no problem handing over some of your food to Shibaru?"

Rai licked his lips upon hearing this.

The mute sighed and silently nodded. Naruto would never forgive him if he didn't and Shibaru would attempt to eat all of his food as well.

They loaded up on supplies and then began their journey into the desert. Naruto took one step into it and sighed. He had avoided this desert for a few reasons. The first reason was because of the fact that it reminded him of Suna too much and his friend Gaara. The only reason it truly reminded him of Gaara was because of the Sandbenders that lived here. They could do only a handful of Gaara's skills, such as throwing the sand around like he did, but they couldn't crush people the way he did or move it in the same fluid motions.

The blond sighed as he looked over to Rai as he was hunkered down by bags of water and food and blankets. Shibaru was sporting some of the weight as well. Naruto, Lyra, and Zentrai pitched in as well and carried most of the gear themselves. Shibaru and Rai were actually leading, and it was important for the leader to wear the least amount of gear since they were the leaders of the mission at the moment.

Naruto hissed though as they crossed the desert. He got sand in places he didn't think possible. He got in his shoes, in his mouth, nose, hair, eyes, ears, and even in the back of his knee, elbows, armpits, and under his fingernails. He never would have noticed he got it in his fingernails if Lyra hadn't gotten annoyed and started cleaning it out from under her nails. But he endured it. He wouldn't start complaining now.

Naruto decided to pass the time thinking about his former life. Looking back at it now made him well aware of how dumb he actually had been back then. He felt stupid even now for believing in the things he did. He would have kicked himself if he had the determination to do so for even thinking that he was smart and powerful back then. He paused in mid thought for a moment and then smiled. He knew he was powerful back then. He had the power of the Kyuubi behind him. No one would have been able to beat him if he used that thing's power.

_And yet, _he thought with a deep sigh, _I was defeated… I think. _

Naruto wasn't fully aware on how he got here. He never understood it. He wasn't sure if he had died and got sent here, was simply transported here, or simply got stuck in a time loop that threw him backwards in time. And to make things worse for him, there were parts he couldn't remember. The only thing he had remembered clearly was when he fought against Pain and won. That was about as far back as he could remember clearly.

As they approached a high dune, Rai suddenly stopped and looked directly towards another dune adjacent to theirs. On the hill sat a small shimmering object. Zentrai gave a peek into Rai and Shibaru's mind. The two didn't take notice of him until he said, _"It's a little fox. It's one of the knowledge seekers of Wong Shi Tong. That means that the library has to be around here somewhere."_

Rai gave a curt nod while Shibaru started to whimper. Kneeling down, Zentrai retrieved a piece of jerky and gave both pets a piece. Rai ate his with delight while Shibaru took her time and nibbled on it. Seeing her discomfort with all the gear, Zentrai removed a portion of it and put it on his own.

Naruto scratched at the side of his head as they began to follow the creature. They crossed dune after dune and passed up every single plant they came across. By the time noon had rolled around they actually catch sight of their targets. It wasn't what Naruto or Lyra had expected. It was a single golden tower that rose a few meters into the air. The once great library had been buried under the sands of time.

And across from them he could see the group of teens eyeing the thing.

Naruto forced the team down and watched them from across the desert like a hawk. Shibaru began to growl as she watched Toph start talking with Appa about something. Naruto noted her annoyance and decided to do something stupid.

"One of us should head inside to ensure the safety of the Avatar," Naruto suggested. Lyra shook her head. She was a no go. She spent too much time in a library of information that she didn't want to see a single book unless it was a target holding one. Zentrai gave a nod, signaling that he'd take point. "The rest of us will stay outside to ensure that nothing happens to Toph and the Bison. Shibaru," Naruto began stripping her of her packs, "head out with Zentrai and keep him on track. If things get bad, the Avatar's safety is top priority. All other things are consider secondary priority."

Zentrai gave a nod and circled around the place with Shibaru leading the way. They intended to stay far away from the Bison and Toph. As the mute moved behind the dunes to keep out of sight, he linked with Toph's mind to understand her better.

The first thing he noticed was that she was in fact blind. He had already learned that much from their first encounter, but he'd never been a hundred percent sure. He also learned that she could 'see' with Earthbending. She used the vibrations people gave off to track and see them. It was possible that this was why she was such a dangerous opponent and someone that was considered an Earthbending prodigy.

All other things on her mind turned to food, water, being bored, and wanting to leave the heat of the desert as soon as possible.

With nothing else going on in her mind, the mute and pet moved to the back of the tower and approached it with great caution. Zentrai sized it up and then ran up the side of it. Gravity kicked in and jumped for the top. He didn't make it, but he stopped his decent with a quick knife into one of the cracks that lined the tower. He paused after getting his footing. He checked Toph's mind. She hadn't heard him or wasn't paying attention.

Looking down, he motioned to Shibaru before ascending further up the tower. He got to the window and watched as Shibaru sank into the ground, vanished in a plume of black smoke, and appeared by his feet. _"I wish I had that ability," _he said simply. Shibaru gave him a confused glance. He shrugged it off and looked down into the depths of the tower. Opening his mind to the world, he felt out the presence of a half a dozen people. He recognized Katara, Aang, Momo, and Sokka. There were two unknowns.

He waited for his chance to climb down the very rope that Sokka had put in place. When he was certain that nothing was down there that could spot him, he climbed down and touched down on the first of many bridges that lined the massive building. A mountain of books covered his vision with a vast collection of stuffed animal heads. Shibaru whimpered softly at some of them as they started moving through the place.

Zentrai sent her a wave of calm and she relaxed for a moment.

They moved through the library at a leisurely pace before Zentrai suddenly stopped and scowled. "What are you doing here in my library," a cool and collected voice asked.

The moment the mute turned to see who was talking was the moment he feared that something or someone was about to die. Before him stood a fiver meter tall owl that glowered down on them. Zentrai's first thought was to kill it and moved on. But it had spoken human tongue and clearly looked more amused with him rather than Shibaru.

The teen stood straighter and calmly said, _"I'm here to protect the Avatar. It's my mission. Get in my way, and I'll cut you down."_ The owl seemed shocked for only a brief moment. It passed just as quickly as it appeared and Zentrai probed his mind. He stopped sort on another threat when he learned that it was the Spirit, Wong Shi Tong. He turned quickly to Shibaru and said, _"Do all the Spirits take animals forms for a reason or just because they like bestiality?" _

The owl voiced its question over Zentrai's. "So… you're one of _those _people? I thought your race of benders died out two hundred years ago. It seems I was mistaken." He started circling the teen and Shibaru began to growl. Zentrai calmed her once more and smiled. He stopped as he got down low to the ground and eyed him dangerously. "You are a royal specimen. I believe I'll add you to my collection."

Before anything could be done, Shibaru broke in with a harsh cry of, _"Touch him not or you will feel my wrath, lowly Spirit!" _Wong Shi Tong turned hastily to Shibaru with wide eyes. Shibaru, to Wong Shi Tong alone, saw her evil aura she produced. It whipped about wildly and he could see the faint traces of fire burning in her eyes. She'd use her powers to set the place aflame if he did anything to Zentrai. With the message clearly delivered, the Spirit backed off and waited for her to continue speaking.

"_You've got a lot of nerve trying to collect humans for your study, Wong Shi Tong. You are no better than the Fire Nation soldier that came to your library and burned your collection on the Fire Nation. You have no right to do this!" _The owl Spirit snorted and lowered himself to her eye level. He opened his mouth, but the fire in her eyes increased and he backed off again. _"I trust you didn't kill the Avatar and his group?"_

"I merely forced them to hand over some tomes or scroll in order to see my collection. They contributed and have been granted access to my vast collection of knowledge. Though I doubt they will not use my knowledge to destroy someone. All humans work that way." His eyes locked with Zentrai for a moment. He turned away and continued to monitor the other humans in the library by way of his foxes. "They will use my knowledge to bring harm to those around them for no reason. It is the way humans work. They only want information to better themselves over other humans."

"_You don't care for humans yet you steal their books and scrolls for your own purposes," _Zentrai sent to him. The Owl Spirit hissed a curse towards in a different and ancient language. Zentrai ignored it and glared at him. _"If you take that which belongs to humans and expect them to read it without using it on their enemies, you're a fool. And besides, with what the Fire Nation has been doing to this world, vengeance must be dealt to them."_

"You are no better than the other humans who have done such terrible deeds then."

"_No. He does what he does to protect his loved ones. What the Fire Nation is doing it wrong and unjust. You shall let them do what they must in order to survive this war. Or so help me, my mate and I will tear you down." _Wong Shi Tong took a step forward but then watched a thing metal blades began to float in the air. Wong Shi Tong gave the weapons a hard glance before turning away. _"You seem to have forgotten that he is a Magnetism-Bender."_

Zentrai hastily pulled back his weapons as he continued to probe the mind of the owl. This sent a wave of alarm through Shibaru. She was a former Spirit, sort of like how Wong Shi Tong was. Both attained physical bodies and joined the mortal world to do what they felt they needed to do. They still had some powers, but not a lot. They were mortal now and their powers were limited to certain things, like Rai and Shibaru's own vanishing trick.

Wong Shi Tong on the other hand would actually have the upper hand in battle because of all the fighting styles he'd learned over the years. He also had flight on his side and was twice as big as either of the two. There was also the fact that most of his feathers hid where his actual flesh was. He appeared big, but was really rather tiny underneath it all. An illusion of some sort as Naruto would have probably explained it as.

But this wasn't his reason for pulling his weapons back.

"_You have millions of books, tomes, scrolls, and random pieces of parchments from all over the world and time, correct?" _The owl nodded silently. _"And you said you thought my race of people died off two hundred years ago." _He paused and looked to Shibaru. She understood what he wanted. _"You have this place set up according to the nation or bending abilities, correct?"_

"Yes."

"_Do you have anything at all on my people?" _

"Yes."

"_Can I see it, please?"_

"No."

"_No? Why not? I know nothing of my people other than legends and rumors. I know my people no longer exist as one. Our blood has been split among all the other nations because we did this during the time in which all blood ties were lined as one. I know that if I can look back far enough I'd learn that my great-great grandfather was probably a Waterbender or something like that. My people are the only ones that have the blood of all nations pumping through us because we never found a place to fully call home."_

"You're people had secrets that are best left forgotten," he answered cryptically. Shibaru looked to the owl for a moment and then turned her attention to one of the foxes. Wong Shi Tong sighed as he glanced around. He looked unhappy with something. "I need to be somewhere else at the moment. If it pleases you, I will take you to what you seek. But I warn you, what you will learn is not a lie. Your race of benders has far too many skeletons in the closet to count."

"_I don't care! Show me!" _He ordered.

Wong Shi Tong gave his fox a quick nod before departing. The Owl Spirit led them through a various set of shelves, stairs, even made him go down a few floors before getting to a sealed off section. There were scorch marks along the side of it. Clearly someone had tried to get inside and failed horribly. Zentrai moved forward and knelt down to inspect them. Wong Shi Tong passed him by and kept walking.

Shibaru began sniffing the air and suddenly started to whimper.

Zentrai paid her no mind. This was the closest chance he'd get to learning more techniques for his bending.

Wong Shi Tong stopped at one of the doors and ran a wing over the latch. It opened and the door opened with a bit of dust falling off the doors. "What you may find is nothing but the truth. There is only truth in what is written. What you seek cannot fully be reclaimed. You're people are dead and scattered through the lands by ways of blood. Within a century you're people will be washed away among the sands of time. With each new child born, a little more of the blood is diluted and pushed to the side. It is your destiny to wash away with the sands of time."

The mute simply ignored his warnings and pushed through into the darkness. He wanted to learn about his history no matter what it was.

(-)

Naruto fiddled with the dirt beneath his hands. He was attempting to bury his hand, arm, and shoulder without having it pressed flat against the ground. He was failing horribly, but still trying out of boredom. Off to his side was Rai who simply let Lyra bury him in the sand with a smile on her face. Rai just twitched his tail and the sand went flying from his form, forcing Lyra to rebury him. This went on for a dozen minutes before both got bored with their attempts at being buried in the sand.

"Sure is sandy out here," Naruto said quietly. Rai began to whimper from the heat and started licking his fur to keep cool. Naruto retrieved a sack of water and snapped his fingers. Rai opened his mouth and Naruto poured it into a small bowl. Rai drank the water happily and soon had it all gone. Naruto took a drink from it and then tossed it to Lyra. "I wonder just how long they'll be in there."

"Days probably," Lyra offered. She stopped and thought of the Flying Bison. "A few hours probably." She corrected. "From what we've seen so far, Aang cares very deeply for Appa and would probably sacrifice himself for him if he needed to."

Naruto leaned down against the sand and sighed. He didn't have anything to saw to that analogy. They both knew it to be true and were pleased by it. If Aang didn't treat the animal with respect, Naruto or Zentrai might have decided to beat him up.

The minutes ticked by and the two teens opted for self entertainment of their own kind. Naruto started drawing in the sand while Lyra tried Sandbending. She failed to do anything but make it simply move. The sand, which was made up of trillions of ground up pieces of earth, was too shifty and didn't work well with her. She may have been a prodigy student, but even they had trouble with a few things.

Naruto suddenly sighed as he looked down at his drawing. "Do you remember Shiva?" Lyra paused and then nodded. That had been the name of the woman that had drew for him so they could understand the small language barrier between the two. "I used to make fun of her for her crappy way of drawing. But not that I look down at mine…" his voice trailed off as Lyra started giggling. "I tried to draw a picture of a bowl, two chopsticks, and a small napkin. I think I failed."

Lyra continued to laugh.

The chopsticks looked more like twigs with the squiggly lines he made for them. The bowl looked more like a ball/hexagon. And the napkin looked exactly like a pyramid. She laughed for another minute while the teen started laughing as well.

"My art gallery is not very good." He laughed out. Lyra lost it and rolled over laughing. She punched her stomach to try and stop but failed. Naruto just continued to laugh even as Zentrai returned. Naruto was spooked by his sudden appearance. That and the fact that he also dropped a dozen tomes and scrolls right beside them. Naruto gave him a hard glance and then eyed some of the scrolls. "You can read?" He joked. He pulled his book out of his back pocket and started to read his own book.

"_Wong Shi Tong, an asshole he may be, had a pretty good collection of techniques and other things on my people. I took the basics of our history and creation from the library so that I could learn more about my history." _He dropped a bag and it clanged hard into the sand. Naruto gave it a strange glance but said nothing. _"Apparently he had to go deal with something shortly after showing me the location of the room where it was stored. There are some pretty interesting things in here anyways."_

"I'm happy for you," Lyra announced with a fake smile. He caught it and gave her a blank stare. "But weren't your orders to watch over the teens and the Avatar?"

"_What sort of trouble can they get into at a library?" _

Naruto was about to say something when he noticed that Toph was running straight for the tower. She was screaming something that Naruto couldn't catch. He was too focused on the tower. It looked like it was slowly sinking into the sand. He scanned the dune behind it and noted that in fact that dune was no taller than it was.

"The library is sinking!" Naruto shouted as he ran for it. Lyra and Zentrai took off running for the tower with their two pets pushing ahead of them in a split second. "Zentrai, Rai, Shibaru. Get inside the tower and get them out by any means necessary! Lyra, we're going to hold the tower up as long as we can!" Naruto barked out. Zentrai pumped his legs harder as the two pets left him and the other two teens in a plume of dust kicked up by their charge.

Naruto got to the tower first and slammed his hand into the hard stone. He didn't even consider what Toph might do with him now here. With a grunt his power activated and consumed him. The tower slowed its decent, but the blond could feel his legs burning and his feet sinking into the sand.

"What are you doing here?" Toph asked through a painful grunt. Zentrai, Rai, and Shibaru slipped inside while Lyra appeared and slammed her one hand into the tower. Toph began breathing easier with the two helping her even though they were still sinking into the sand. "Hold on for a second."

Toph let go and the two teens groaned as the tower slammed down hard on their bodies. Toph grabbed the sand twisted her hand. The particles fused together and created solid ground.

"That should help a bit."

Naruto ignored her and began breathing heavily before she could get back to her task of helping them hold the tower up.

(-)

There was no time to repel down the rope. Zentrai mounted Shibaru and slammed down into the ground when she jumped off the ledge. Once on the ground, he ordered them split up and search for the Avatar. There was no need to split up. Their noses lead the way.

The mute followed them through dozen of shelves and turns before coming face to face with Wong Shi Tong. He was chasing after Katara. Katara didn't seem to see them until Zentrai tossed some blades right over her head to hit the giant owl in the center of his head. His weapons pinged off his flesh and stunned him only. Katara stopped running when she noticed him, turned to see where the owl was, and then ran towards Zentrai.

Rai and Shibaru passed her by and lunged at Wong Shi Tong. Rai bit into his throat while Shibaru jumped onto his back and bit the back of his neck. They shook their heads to try and tear his flesh from his body. Wong Shi Tong's flesh was stronger than what they thought. Even for them it was like biting into stone. Still they held on and tried to tear his flesh apart.

The giant owl squawked in pain and took off running through the bookshelves. He jumped up and slammed Shibaru into the ceiling. She cried in pain as she was pulled off and left skipping along the ground before righting herself to get back at him. Rai held on tighter and tried harder to pull his flesh from him. Wong Shi Tong twisted around and then spun in the other direction, practically flinging Rai from his throat.

The Owl Spirit hastily moved to attack when a barrage of blades rained down on his form. He ducked and slithered into cover. That didn't help him. The blades rose from the ground and followed after him. He turned and flapped his wings rapidly. A dust storm formed and threw the weapons away for a brief moment. They returned anew and struck harder than before. Some of them swung around back and slammed into the base of his skull. The Owl Spirit lunged forward from the blow and darted for the large portion of open space.

He reached it with no problems and started hovering in the air. His eyes scanned the place over as he looked for his targets. He'd let none escape with the knowledge they bore.

(-)

The first sign of trouble on the surface came when Appa suddenly began to growl. Between the three teens trying to hold the tower up, things had been going smoothly. Neither one of them had complained about the weight or their sudden appearance. In fact Toph seemed happy to have them helping her. So when the trouble started, Naruto began to panic.

"What is it now?" Toph asked through her grunting.

Naruto turned his attention to their rear and said, "There's a dust cloud heading in this direction!" He waited until three dots appeared. "Sandbenders! They probably followed one of us for our gear! They're known thieves!" A swirling storm of dust circled Appa and the teen grunted as he felt his foot slip deeper into the sand. "They're here for the Bison! Lyra," Naruto's footing slipped and the two girls screamed as the added weight was brought down on them.

Naruto quickly righted himself and took back his post.

"Sorry about that! Lyra, let go! Toph and I should be able to hold onto it while you defend the Bison!"

"But…"

"Don't argue with me! Just do it!" Lyra swore loudly and released her hold on the tower. The added weight came down on them, but Naruto bore the most of it. He had a higher grip and was trying to keep Toph from being injured. Lyra went into combat while Naruto said, "I wasn't aware on how much she was taking off of us!"

"How do you think we felt when you slipped?" The blind teen asked. Naruto didn't have the luxury of retorting. He was too busy trying to ensure he didn't bite a hole in his tongue as the weight began to tax him. "Can I ask you something?" Naruto didn't reply. "I can see red right now! I can't see anything normally! But right now! All I see is red! Care to explain that?"

"Now is not the best of times!" Naruto's foot began to slip. He pulled it out and slammed it back down into place as he felt his left leg crack. _I think I just broke a bone in leg! _

(-)

The moment Lyra let go she was gone. She threw herself between Appa and the Sandbenders. The dust storm they cooked up covered most of her vision, leaving her near blind. They took shelter behind their smoke screen and attacked without mercy. Lyra could barely make out their silhouettes from behind the cloud of sand. When she noticed movement, she leapt at the shadow and found her first target.

It was a man as best she could tell. She dropped him hard with a two palm thrust to the chest. He spat blood and dropped holding himself. He'd live but he'd have breathing problems from the force of her blow. Two more men appeared and threw sand at her. It wrapped around her one arm and left leg. She cursed and broke free with all her strength. The Sandbenders didn't stop. They lashed out with more sand attacks. She sidestepped them, got in close, and downed them with quick, sharp, blows.

Appa swung his tail and nearly crushed her. She darted to the side, tucked, rolled, and sprang back to her feet, her hand poised like a cobra. Appa's attack missed, but dissipated the cloud of dust. Now able to see clearly, Lyra was on a near even playing field.

She jumped to the first target she found and kicked him hard in both kneecaps. He grunted and fell as a sand bag hit him in the head. Lyra turned and watched as Appa was downed by the ropes. She jumped to the closest one and palmed him hard in the sternum. He doubled over, coughed blood, but head butted her in the face. She was knocked back and thrown away by a large wall of sand.

Lyra hit the ground, rolled, and then jumped back to her feet. She charged the men but began to sink in the sand. One of them in the distance was dancing. No. He wasn't dancing. He was bending the sand to make her fall into the ground. She swore loudly. Reeling back with her one arm, she flung it forward and released a single knife. It slammed into his side and stopped him cold. She broke out of the sandpit and ran towards the men as fast as she could.

"Put a muzzle on him!" One of the men screamed.

She charged that man. It was a young man with dark brown hair barely hidden under the turban he wore. All she could see was his dark eye and tanned skin. When she got in close, he swung a fist and knocked her across the face. Blood splattered the sands, but she rolled with the blow and kicked him with the back of her heel in the nose. She felt, rather than heard, his nose break. Blood jetted out of his mask and soaked the ground.

"Kill this bitch!" He ordered.

As Appa was finally tied up, Lyra was quickly dispatched. Outnumbered and on unnatural ground, she had no way of winning. One of them men managed to score a cheap hit on the back of her neck and dropped her cold. She hit the ground with the knife she had used on one of them in her side. She looked up from her daze to watch them leave.

"No…" Darkness took her.

(-)

Wong Shi Tong couldn't believe how badly things were going. Zentrai, Rai, and Shibaru were proving to be a major annoyance. _Perhaps I shouldn't have let him see his people's legacy? _He stuffed that thought down into the darkness as he was struck from the side. Shibaru and Rai had gotten in close once more and knocked him out of the air. He dropped hard to the ground but rolled to crush them. The two Spirits vanished in a plume of dark smoke.

Wong Shi Tong stood up and looked around. "That power won't last forever. Eventually you'll run out of energy and will no longer be able to hide from me. And when that happens, I will have two new stuffed heads on my walls," he said darkly.

"_Not if I cut your head off!" _The Owl Spirit looked up just into time to have Zentrai slam two oddly designed swords on the back of his neck. They were hollowed out blades that had a single bar running through them to act like the hilt. He was basically holding the sword from inside the blade itself.

He swung and slammed the weapons down with enough force the have the Knowledge Spirit's head snap up. He squawked from the force of the blow but did not bleed. Noticing this, Zentrai swung again and was batted away by the long tail of the spirit. Zentrai flipped and corrected his flight. He landed on the adjacent bridge and stared at the spirit with darkened eyes.

"_Why are you doing this?"_

"Those humans that came before you lied to me and will use the knowledge gathered here against other humans. They say they are doing it to protect the ones they love. If that is was what they believe, then I too will protect what I love." Zentrai snorted both mentally and physically. "You snort at me because you yourself are incapable of true love. You're kind could never truly love anyone. It was the curse your tribe suffered from. Even if you are only a half-breed by nature, you still feel the burden, don't you? You can't love because of the Spirit that was used to create your kind."

"_I'll have you know that I can love and I do love. I love my mother. I love my team. And I love fighting for what's right! And I'm going to love killing you for what you've done here!" _The giant owl gave a shrug. _"You don't even care that you're about to kill the Avatar do you?"_

"He is just a human trying to better himself over other humans. Avatar or not, he is still just a human. And like all humans, he is an evil person in his heart of hearts."

"_Then why is the Avatar a signal of hope for those without it? What is the purpose of the Avatar then? Just because he's supposed to bring balance to the world doesn't make him evil. If being evil means saving the world from total destruction, than what does it mean to be good in your eyes?"_

"Good and Evil are just words. They are nothing to either of them. There is no good in this world and there is no evil. There is only nothing."

"_You've become twisted!" _Shibaru growled. She lunged at the other spirit and slammed him against the ground. He struggled to stand under her form. He eventually rose and tossed her aside with a flick of his long neck. She flew through the air and landed on the well where she clung with her nails. _"You were always reading and sticking your beck in places it didn't belong. Is this the sum of your knowledge? Is this what you have come to believe by reading your books?"_

"Human history is nothing but a lie cooked up by the winner of a fight. That is all that is in their history. Bloodshed. Their history is nothing but bloodshed. There is not a single tome I posses that doesn't even have something to do with a war or battle that was fought and one so someone could write about it. What I have learned from reading is that humans are creatures that know only of war and hatred. They know nothing of peace!"

He flapped his wings and knocked pet and owner back. Zentrai flipped through the air and landed on the wall. He jammed his sword into it and stood up on it while Shibaru clung to the wall with her claws.

"_Then why was the Avatar created?" _Rai dropped down on Wong Shi Tong's back and bit his featured ear. He squawked loudly to this and started flinging his head around, slamming the male into the ground hard. _"We helped in the creation of the Avatar so that the humans would be able to live their lives in peace. They wanted nothing more than to have it, yet they fought battle after battle to have till we were asked by a select few! We gave them hope! We gave them an answer to their prayers!"_

The Owl Spirit snapped his head in one direction and whipped it back the other way. Rai was flung away and sent crashing through two rows of books before using his vanishing trick.

"Yet look at what they have done even with the Avatar!" Wong Shi Tong proclaimed loudly. He flapped his wings again as Shibaru and Zentrai leapt at him. They were knocked back, but Zentrai threw another one of his swords at him from within his large weapon rack on his back. The Owl Spirit felt the blade bounce of his flesh and fly higher into the air. "Even with the Avatar there is nothing but suffering and bloodshed. Even with our little nudge we gave them for peace they still fight!"

Zentrai scowled and lunged at the Spirit. He drove one sword into his mouth. Wong Shi Tong bit down on him, but found his flesh too hard to break with his beck. It tasted just like metal to him. His eyes widened in shock as he figured it out. Before he could let go, however, a hail of knives shattered through his bottom beck. Blood jetted out of the wound and he screamed in total agony. He whipped around and screamed at the mute for his actions.

Zentrai pulled back his weapons and dropped to the ground just as Katara appeared with Momo in hand. Wong Shi Tong turned to her and then turned to Zentrai. "It matters not what you try against me, mortals. I have studied Southern Water Style, Northern Water Style… even Foggy Swamp Style. And I know all of your secrets, Magnetism-Bender. You cannot beat me!" Zentrai sheathed both of his swords while calling the other one back. "You're weapons can't cut my skin. You have to understand that by now?"

"_Who said anything about cutting your flesh now?" _Zentrai pulled the weapon rack from his back and brought it forward. _"This may be a large metal sheath of some sort to those that look at it, but it is much more than that. This is my personal Anti-Son-Of-A-Bitch Stick! And guess what? You're the one I'm after." _

The mute jumped into the air as Sokka came down with a large book in hand. The Water Tribe warrior slammed it down into the birds head while Zentrai came down and delivered another blow to him. The owl howled and fell into the darkness. Sokka looked at Zentrai and then the blood he was covered in. His fighting had gotten him injured.

Rai and Shibaru appeared both sporting wounds as well and looked back to the ceiling.

"We need to get out of here!" Sokka exclaimed. Aang flew overhead and let the two teens grab onto his feet. He would have taken Zentrai but the mute would have weighed them down too much. He jumped on Shibaru's back and rode the walls.

"You're not leaving!"

Zentrai growled and jumped off of Shibaru as the owl got closer to them. He slammed his weapon back down into his skull. He could hear his skull crack under the force. But this didn't stop Wong Shi Tong. He was a Spirit after all. It would take more than Zentrai's weapons to take him down. He pushed off of him as the spirit continued to head for Aang and the others. Zentrai slammed his weapon again into his skull, this time getting his attention.

"You're an eyesore!" He swung one of his wings awkwardly and threw the teen down with a gust of wind. Zentrai fell down and grabbed onto Wong Shi Tong's clawed foot. The Spirit looked down with utter annoyance until he saw him break off one of his talons with the help of Rai. Pulling himself up to him, he jammed the talon into his eye, earning painful screams from Wong Shi Tong. "You damn human!"

Zentrai slammed his weapon once more into his skull, this time right at the base of his beck. It cracked and knocked him out for good that time. As he fell into the darkness, Rai grabbed onto Zentrai and clanged onto the wall. He ran straight up with the teen watching for any sign of the Spirit's return.

Aang and his group were the first to exit the tower. Zentrai was relieved to see that as he exited a moment later with Shibaru nipped at their tails. He dismounted in the air and crashed into the ground with the two Spirits doing the same.

"_Let it go!" _Zentrai ordered to Naruto.

Naruto kicked Toph back and then let go just before the tower's full weight could crush down on him. He was thrown back by a heavy breeze and landed next to Toph as his powers died away. They two remained on the ground breathing heavily. "That… sucked!" Naruto groaned as he sat up. Toph did the same and held her head in her hands sadly. Naruto was soon on his feet and running to Lyra. She was still on the ground but no longer bleeding.

"Toph," Aang called out in confusion. She sighed as she knew what was coming. "Where's Appa?" She shook her head while Naruto and Zentrai tended to their wounded pets. "What happened?"

"Sandbenders came and kidnapped him while we were holding the tower up," Naruto explained through labored breathing. He punched his chest a few times and started coughing. "I hate sand." He coughed once more and then stood up straight while limping on his possibly cracked leg. "They came while we were holding the tower up to keep you safe. Lyra tried to stop them but she can't bend the sand like they can. She injured a few of them but…" Naruto shook his head.

Aang turned his back to all of them as Lyra sat up without her shirt on. Zentrai was tending to her wounds after seeing to their pets.

"Why?" Naruto sighed as Lyra suddenly screamed from having Zentrai sew her wound up. "Why did you let them take Appa?!"

"The Library was sinking! It was either save your lives or Appa! Which would you have preferred?" Naruto snapped. Aang turned to face him as Naruto pulled his pant leg up and felt the bone. _Maybe I simply popped it? _Naruto rolled it back down and got up. "And personally, the world needs you more than they do your Flying Bison. You have a duty to the world, Avatar. I suggest you focus on that instead of your pet at the moment."

"How can you say that?" Aang stopped and looked the three teens over as they finished moving their gear around. "Why are you here? I thought you said you'd protect us? Why didn't _you_ protect Appa?" He pointed his staff at Naruto's nose. The teen batted it away and looked him deep in the eye. "You could have saved him!"

"Yes. I admit I could have saved him. But I wasn't going to risk letting go of the tower for a moment just to make a few shadow clones that would have been destroyed easily. They can't use my powers and they're not nearly as powerful as I am when I'm serious. They wouldn't have lasted. And the only reason I'm here is to ensure you're survival. I have orders to ensure that you survive. You have a duty to the world and I suggest you start fulfilling it since you're a hundred years late on the job."

"You could have come to get us! I could have saved him!" Aang screamed at all four of the teens. Naruto sighed and shook his head.

"How could we? Didn't you listen to him just now?" Toph screamed.

"None of you cared! You didn't like Appa! You're pets tried to eat Appa!" Rai was pawed in the face by Shibaru for that as if to remind him of his faulty.

Naruto reached over and slapped Aang across the face. The slap was hard and to the point. It left a red mark on the side of his face. "Stop acting like a child that just had his favorite toy broken, Avatar," Naruto shouted. "Yelling isn't going to do you any good. And for the record, you should have known to not do anything stupid inside the place. It was near fully buried and you started poking your noses around in the place."

Aang turned and walked off.

"Where are you going?" Katara screamed.

"I'm going to find Appa!" Aang took off into the sky, leaving the teens behind.

Naruto shook his head. "Zentrai, take Shibaru and follow him. Lyra, can you move on your own?" Zentrai began removing the gear from Shibaru as the female assassin got to her feet. She wobbled and Rai was quickly at her side to help her stand. "Keep an eye on Aang and don't let him do anything stupid. I'll get these guys out of the desert."

"We need to get to Ba Sing Se," Sokka announced. Naruto gave him a funny look. Sokka closed his eyes. "If you guys are truly serious about helping us, help us get to Ba Sing Si. We have key information that could help us end this war. Can you get us to Ba Sing Se?"

Naruto looked to Zentrai and gave him a nod. "Yes. We'll help you get to Ba Sing Se. But first things first," Naruto grabbed Lyra up and placed her on his back. "We need to get you guys out of here." The blond knelt down and retrieved a map from one of the bags that were now stuffed onto Rai. He skimmed over it and pointed to a place on it. "We'll meet here, Zentrai. If you can't find us, wait there for a week. If we don't show up, move on without us. But whatever happens, keep the Avatar alive. This world can't afford to have him fall now."

Zentrai rode off into the distance on Shibaru. Naruto grabbed the gear that would have been taken by Lyra and Shibaru and put it on his own and Rai. Rai groaned from the added weight before Toph decided to take some of it.

Sokka was quick to snatch up the map he held and smiled. "You have a map of the Fire Nation."

"You can't have it. But you can look at on the way out of here. We need to get moving though." Naruto summoned up five clones, his max nowadays, and forced them into carrying the added weight while the original carried Lyra. "We have to get going. It'll be dark soon and I personally wanna get out of this desert. I have some supplies but not enough for all of us for more than three days if did my math right, which I probably did wrong."

"What about Aang?" Katara asked. She was eyeing Lyra. The girl had flushed cheeks and was breathing heavily.

"Zentrai and Shibaru will ensure he survives. If nothing else, they'll get to the rendezvous place before us unless Aang somehow can get back to us." Naruto moved Lyra up closed on his back and started walking. _This is so not what I was hoping it to be. _


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki

Chapter 11

The heat hadn't gotten to them yet. Zentrai was amazed at how far Aang was willing to travel in vain to find his pet when his own life was in danger. Wondering around in the desert was bad enough even with supplies. But Aang had nothing other than the clothes on his back and his staff. He wouldn't last long out here. And coupled with his anger at the moment, even Zentrai didn't have to read minds to know that he would soon die if he didn't calm down and start thinking straight.

Aang dropped from the sky, forcing Zentrai to come to a halt. Shibaru whimpered with her tongue hanging out. Spirit or not, she was mortal and needed water. Zentrai retrieved his pouch and let her drink it all after splitting it open. She drank all of it. He wasn't amazed. She needed it more than he did.

"_He is losing a battle in his heart," _Shibaru proclaimed to her master. Zentrai nodded. _"He will not last long out here like this. We must intervene or else he will die."_

"_No. We're going to stay out of his way until he either passes out or simply gets caught up in a fight. Either way, we're following Naruto's orders to the letter. I don't wanna fight the Avatar, even if he's not a fully fledged one." _The mute watched Aang start to cry as he took back to the sky. He called out for Appa and blew the Bison Whistle he had procured sometime ago. Zentrai mounted Shibaru again and began heading out after him. _"I just hope the others are doing okay."_

(-)

Naruto shifted Lyra on his back and cracked his neck. "I started working for the Fire Nation to get close enough to the Fire Lord so that I could kill him," he answered. Sokka looked a bit stunned by this.

Despite the heat, dry wind and air, the team was somewhat high spirits given everything that was going on. Naruto coughed and looked to his clones and then Rai. They were doing okay.

"So you tried to capture Aang to get closer to the Fire Lord? You are aware that they would have killed him, right," Katara asked. Naruto nodded dumbly. Katara didn't seem convinced. "Why did you even think they would simply let you get closer to them if you started working for them? How stupid are you?"

"For the record, when the order came for me to capture and or kill the Avatar, I was in his presences. The only difference between then and now is that he kept that little bit of information away from me. We had no idea that Aang was the Avatar. Had we known, I would have called off the mission a lot sooner and started helping you all the moment we found you. That's why I let him go when we were tracking you guys in that metal tank thing."

Naruto turned and watched Toph. She was wobbling about and trying hard not to crash into anyone. The blond glanced at one of the lightest clones and then had it fork over its gear to another clone. The clone then moved over to Toph and held her hand.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"We can't afford to have you getting lost. The Avatar is already lost out there and we can't afford to lose him. Zentrai will protect him." Naruto started walking again and the others soon followed after him.

"Aang," Katara said silently. Naruto gave her a puzzled look. "Just call him by his name. He may throw around his title, but even he likes to be known by his real name rather than his title. Would you like us to start calling you Assassin all day long?"

Lyra glanced up from her spot on his back and knocked her head into his. "Just call him by his name, Naruto. I'd rather not have you picking a fight with a bunch of teens right now. I'm in no shape to honestly be fighting and my body hurts like hell. So please just do as she says."

The blond sighed and nodded. _Anything for her, _he mused.

"Are you two dating?" Toph asked in a loud voice. She wanted to start a new conversation and make it funny if she could.

Lyra chuckled while Naruto said, "They're be two people that would try to have me killed for sleeping with her. And furthermore, I see her as a big sister rather than a girlfriend. She's not my style anyways." He earned a quick bop on the head from the one armed teen for this. "If anyone was deserving of Lyra, it would be Zentrai."

"Oh god," Lyra growled. This got a few laughs. "No offense, Naruto, but Zentrai isn't exactly what I'd like to have as a boyfriend. Not that my style is strange or nothing…"

"The last guy you dated, Zentrai killed because he was abusive and you took it for some reason."

"He was charming, handsome, cute, and good in bed. So what if he hit me two times? The first time was my fault and the second one was for no reason. If Zentrai hadn't attacked him when he did, I would have killed him first. And there's nothing wrong with my choice of men. They're just hard to come by. What's your excuse for not having a girlfriend? Last time I checked, your basic idea of a girlfriend is someone that can either kick your ass or come close to it."

The teen sighed while the others started laughing.

"So you've never kissed a girl, I'm guessing?" Sokka quipped.

"I've had more sex than you've had, Sokka." The Water Tribe warrior growled at the dig. Naruto snorted while one of his clones began shaking its head. Rai growled something and sat down.

"Katara," Toph gagged on some sand and then continued. "Can I have some water?"

The group came to a stop. Katara bended the water and poured it into Sokka, Toph, and Momo's mouth. While this was going on, Naruto dug out one of his water pouches and hand it to Lyra so she could drink first. Naruto got some of it and then poured the remaining bit of it into a bowl for Rai. Rai drank it all and cleaned the bowl as a result.

"This is all we have," Katara whispered to them.

Sokka took two steps forward and grinned. "Not anymore! Look!" He ordered. In the distance was a cactus. Naruto glanced at Lyra and she seemed to try and shrink behind his form a bit. Naruto got the same feeling as he watched Sokka dive into the water that was trapped inside the plant.

"Sokka! Wait! You shouldn't be eating strange plants!" Katara urged. She ran towards him. Naruto followed with his clones and Rai. They watched in mild amusement as the Water Tribe teen gulped down the water inside the plant.

He sliced off another piece, downed the water inside, and then grabbed another one. "There's water trapped inside these," he explained. He handed it to her but she refused.

"I don't know…"

"Suit yourself. It's very thirst quenching though." And then it happened. Sokka shook his head rapidly. His skin drained of some color. He smiled, waved a hand around, and then went into an odd rant. "Drink Cactus Juice! It'll quench yah! Nothing's quencher! It's the quenchiest!"

Naruto stood gob smacked. While Sokka had done the equivalent of a sales pitch, he had somehow managed to do the worm, pretend the drink formed by his fingers, and smile so big that his ears practically touched his lips. It was odd.

Katara, unamussed by all of this, took the offered drink and poured it onto the ground. There would be no way in hell that she'd consider bending that stuff into her pouch. "I think you've had enough now." She turned towards Toph and the clone holding Naruto only to pause in mild shock when Sokka appeared right there.

"Who lit Toph on fire?" Momo started circling overhead and crashed into the sand. Naruto now had to resist the urge to laugh as Toph tried to score some of the drink and Katara was forced to drag Sokka behind her as he said, "How did we get out here in the middle of the ocean?"

Katara sighed and Naruto slipped right next to her. "Is he normally like this?" Katara tried to think of a way to respond to that before nodding. Sure that was a lie on her part, but it was better just to pretend and try not to know her brother now. "Whatever that stuff was I'm sure happy Zentrai wasn't here. He'd probably try to get as much of it as he could and then turn around and sell it. He's not big on making money like that, but it would be a great joke on his part."

"Zentrai's an assassin just like us. He'd probably use it on himself just to take the edge off every once and while." Lyra offered up.

Naruto shrugged and started focusing on the sun. It was at the peak of its climb in the sky and in a few hours would set, leaving them with cold air, rather than hot, dry air.

They trucked their way through the sands for hours, never stopping to rest. By the time dusk came around, Aang returned with Zentrai hot on his trail. The team stopped and Naruto let the others rest while he took care of the crazed Water Tribe warrior. Zentrai gave him one quick look before reeling. He gripped his head and the blond assassin smirked.

"Didn't find anything interesting in there, did you?" Zentrai snorted at him and looked back at the clearly drunk teen with annoyance crossing his features. "Sokka, you need something to drink?"

"What sort of stuff do you guys do?" He asked happily. Zentrai watched as Sokka grabbed Naruto, wrapped an arm around his neck and smiled at him. "What sort of missions do you do?"

"We do secret missions."

Sokka paused, smiled, and then waved his arm around in the air while singing, "We're unlocking the secret mission!"

Naruto shoved him away and let Lyra down. She wobbled a bit and then righted herself. "I can walk now without worrying about falling on my ass."

"_And what a beautiful ass it is. I'm guessing you had a fun time grabbing it, Naruto?" _Naruto shot him a dirt look while Lyra rolled her eyes. She fetched a water pouch for the animals, aside from Momo of course, and began drinking. The three older teens looked back at the younger ones and watched them interact. _"Katara seems to be trying to keep them together. Aang believes that all hope is lost. Sokka… well his mind is so scrambled I can't read it. And as for Toph… she just doesn't know. I hate to admit it, but I'm not even sure if we can get out of this."_

"We've been in tougher situations," Lyra told him. "Don't you remember that time Naruto dove into a bunker filled with Fire Nation soldiers and killed them all just to rescue our client? Or the time when you managed to get a squad of Earthbenders out from behind a stationary ballista that the Fire Nation was using on them? We've been in tougher situations than this. We'll make it." Naruto grunted and turned his focus to the sky. Lyra sighed. "We should probably put Toph on Shibaru for safety. Naruto can give back the added weight to that clone and we can still have Toph ride around on Shibaru for safety."

The male assassins nodded and quickly rearranged everything. Aang made sure to watch the three like hawks as Toph was put on top of Shibaru and the rest of the clones took up the added weight. When everything and everyone was loaded up, they moved out with Sokka holding onto Momo's tail as the little creature tried flying in the other direction. For Naruto, this was the worst assignment ever.

(-)

Ty Lee glanced outside at a group of Fire Nation tanks as they slowly followed in formation with the drill. She sighed and watched the churning metal tear into the soil, leaving deep holes in the ground. This was not her ideal mission or her choice of work she preferred. But what else could she do. Azula would burn her if she disobeyed even the slightest. She feared Azula more than she cared for her now. Azula tried once already to capture or slay Naruto and Zentrai, but in the end was nearly killed with two marks on her forehead. And yet now she wanted to capture them after having suffered through that horrible defeat.

_No, _she thought. She recalled the carnage of what was there when they arrived. _That wasn't a defeat. That was a slaughter. _She shook her head as the strange specter appeared from before. It haunted her in her sleep now. It wasn't around her; it was just in her dreams. She hadn't been infected by darkened thoughts or desires; it was just a nightmare that didn't go away.

It was always the same. It was like she had been at the battle. She watched from the sidelines and pictured it all. Naruto was standing on the stronghold just like how Azula had said he had. His aura blazed forth and he decimated everything in his path. Zentrai stood on a tower before vanishing within it. Blades rained down from the sky and gutted people left and right. Those that survived the initial strike were quickly cut down by his floating weapons.

It was a massacre plain and simple. And yet even without being there she could almost feel like what she saw in her dreams was real.

And then it appeared. As Naruto's aura blazed like an inferno, the specter rose over him and howled towards the moon. Its voice was silent to those around it, unseen to all but her. It moved as one with Naruto as he destroyed shields and spears. He collapsed ranks with a single swing of his fist. Nothing could stop him. And as his fighting increased and his hatred boiled over, the specter grew, laughing as it did.

Feet and legs appeared and it rooted itself to the blood soaked soil. It stared at the carnage and began to sink within the earth. But she could still see it. Red eyes that laughed at her suffering and pain. It seemed to just stare at her like it knew she could see it. It waited and then rose from the ground and consumed her with a single gulp.

It was at this point she'd awake screaming and be forced to hold herself for comfort.

Azula wanted to capture _that_. Her father wanted to have them capture him. It was an impossible task that would get them killed. She didn't want to die. She wanted to live, but disobeying Azula would lead to death. It would lead to only her destruction and she knew it. She couldn't run, Azula would find and kill her. She could fight Naruto; he'd slaughter her in a heartbeat and move on. She had nowhere to go and no other option then to fight.

"You're worrying about it again," Mai said. Ty Lee turned and found her friend. Azula was probably off somewhere else at the moment. General Han seemed to always have her at his side. Mai stepped towards her and looked down at the tanks. "You shouldn't worry about him. I doubt he'd have a reason to come after us. We didn't even help in their capture."

"But we could have released them! We could have saved those soldiers by having Azula call it off. We both knew that it was impossible and yet… yet we let them go." Ty Lee leaned down against the window and stared at the dust cloud as the tanks and drill surged forward. "I want out of this." Mai gave her a curious glance. "We can't fight Naruto or Zentrai. They'll kill us all. We don't have an army to throw at them, not like it'd work anyways. And we don't have a way of forcing him to use his powers so we can drain him. We're outmatched. And personally, I don't wanna fight him. He was too kind to be what he was and too nice to me and you."

Mai put a hand on her shoulder and licked her lips. She tried to find the right words to comfort her, but came up short. Her problems were the same, forcing her into this situation as well. She too didn't want to fight either of the two men. She didn't even want to fight Zuko. She wouldn't care if she fought the Avatar. He wasn't someone she knew and liked. She wouldn't mind fighting Zentrai, but that was namely because he was pervert and needed a sound ass kicking.

She pulled her hand off and turned away. "If we're lucky we won't have to fight him. And you should know that he might not kill either of us anyways. He marked Azula when he could have just killed her or captured her. That says a lot. He won't harm us unless we give him no choice. If we find him, just stand down and don't fight him. He'll probably spare you that way." Ty Lee nodded and leaned against the wall of her room.

"When I first met Naruto he was distant and always seemed to wanna keep people at arm's length. After he used his powers and we found our first real clue as to where the Avatar was I talked with him for a little while. He was surprised to see that I wanted to stay by his side. I wonder if he's ever been loved by another person other than Rehka." Mai shrugged and sat down on the bed. Ty Lee smiled. "Rehka told me that he grew up without the love of parents and she filled the role. I wonder what happened to them."

"I'm sure if you see him again you'll be able to ask him." Mai looked to the door and watched as it was opened. Azula stepped inside and blinked. "What's up?"

"We'll be making contact with the Outer Wall in a week now," she said with a small ting of annoyance. Ty Lee smirked as her aura shifted colors again. "We still have no idea on if Naruto and Zentrai will be at Ba Sing Se when we arrive. If we get through the wall, we're to aid in the invasion and help take out the place. If they show up, we're on our own." The two girls blinked. They hadn't been told that part yet. "All of the troops are being ordered to leave them alone. This may still work to our advantage if it works right. Naruto and Zentrai will probably try to stop the troops if they're there. While they're fighting the troops, they'll drain themselves and then we can move in and grab them."

Mai raised a hand. "One problem with that is that Naruto may never run out of energy. He went berserk last time and decimated nearly three battalions with Zentrai and that one armed Earthbending chick in less than five minute. How can we hope to capture them if they do the same thing here?"

"We've got the tanks for support along with the drill. This thing is loaded with four battalions and almost all of them are Firebenders on a Master Level. If they can keep him busy long enough, we might have a shot at capturing him."

"I think you're forgetting one thing," Mai dragged out. Azula gave her a sharp glare. "How are we going to keep them both pinned? Zentrai has more weapons on him than I do myself. Naruto's physical very strong and fast. We have no idea on how long it would take for him to rest from using that power. And even if we do by some luck manage to capture him, how are we going to hold them. We don't have a wooden prison to keep him in and we don't know of a way to keep Naruto from using his powers. How are we going to hold them?"

Azula smirked. "We're going to knock Naruto out and throw him in a steel coffin. That should hold him. I've already gotten the thing and as for Zentrai, we'll be putting him inside a wooden prison. I actually have one right now on the thing. It was one of the items I recently procured from our last stop in the village. We should be set so long as we can get them knocked out and put them inside. After that, it should be easy to transport them."

"And that's supposing that the Avatar's group doesn't come and rescue him?" Ty Lee inquired.

Azula gave her a confused glance before dismissing it with a wave. Once they captured Naruto and Zentrai, the army would break off to help her take them home, but only after they'd taken Ba Sing Se. Once it was taken over, they would be able to take leave and help get her to the Fire Nation capital with her targets in custody.

Ty Lee turned away. _I still don't think we can take them. _

(-)

Night had finally fallen and Katara had ordered the team to rest for a while. Naruto helped Toph get off of Shibaru while Zentrai began handing out water to the two older teens.

"Katara," Toph asked in a whisper. "Can I have some more water?"

"Okay, but this is the last of it." She was in the middle of forming three small blobs of water when Momo jumped into and disrupted it all. It splashed to the ground and soaked into the sand.

"Momo no! You've killed us all!" Sokka screamed.

"No he hasn't." Katara bent the water out of the ground and put it back in her pouch. "Sokka, let me see the stuff you got from the library."

Naruto sloshed the contents of his pouch around and handed it to Toph when she finished drinking the water Katara gave her. She happily took it and drank it all as Sokka went into a rant about something. Naruto and Toph weren't really listening. Taking the pouch back, Naruto tossed it to Zentrai and the teen put it in one of the bags. "Are you feeling okay?" Naruto asked Toph. The blind girl nodded and crashed down into the sand. "We're going to have to have you walk for a bit. Rai is tired from holding most of the gear and we'll be putting it on Shibaru for the time being."

"Why can't I ride Rai? Does he not like people on his back?"

Naruto looked over at his pet and then chuckled. "Rai has red pieces of bone jetting out of his body on his back and elbows. If you were to ride on him, you'd more than likely get skewered, or worse, penetrated." Toph winced at the last idea. He didn't he even tell her how big they were and she didn't like the idea. "Besides, Rai would kill you if you even tried to get on his back without permission, and even then he'd do everything in his power to make it uncomfortable."

"Right…" she drawled out. Naruto chuckled and then crashed down into the sand next to her. "So… you wanna explain that thing now? Or is this still not a good time?" A little bit of her tomboy spirit came back. Naruto shook his head and she saw it via the minor vibrations she could get. "I see. But what was it? I could see… something."

"And you believed it to be red because…"

"Don't know. People tried to explain colors to me once and red was the one that I understood the most. They said it was like fire. So when I saw it, I simply believed it to be fire and fire is red. That and the fact that it was warm made me believe that it was red." She laughed slightly. Naruto turned his attention to the moon and waited for her to continue speaking. Toph eventually sighed and asked another question. "Why are you guys so determined to protect Aang? Is it just because he's the Avatar or…"

"The organization that I work for has asked us to protect him. We've been fighting this war for a very long time and we've been trying to stop it. When we heard rumors that the Avatar was back, I didn't believe it. I truly thought he was dead. But then all the rumors started flying about what happened at the North Pole and well… I started to believe I had a way out from all this fighting. Now that I know he's just a teen… I'm really worried that I still have a few more years of fighting to do."

"You really don't like fighting, do you?" Naruto laughed with a nod. "I thought all men loved to fight. My dad loved to fight with my mother. They had tons of arguments at night. I could hear them. I always could."

Naruto shrugged. "I grew up without parents. My family died the day I was born. I was raised by the village elder for a while before becoming a ninja. After that… well I try not to think about it." He glanced up at the setting sun and watched the others crash into the sand. "Get some rest. We'll probably need it for night travel." Toph turned over and fell asleep while the assassin moved to Katara. "I'll keep watch until you're ready to head out."

"Thanks," she rolled up the chart in her hand and looked at him strangely. "You don't have to stand guard for the night. I doubt anyone will show up out here."

"It's always important to be ready for anything. Just get some rest. I won't let anything harm any of you. I'll wake you in a few hours though." Katara turned over and went to sleep, leaving Naruto to guard them during the night.

A few hours passed quickly with no incident. Naruto was able to watch over them with little to no problem. They all slept; say for Aang who stayed awake just so he could glare at the sky. Naruto could feel his pain. He understood what it was like to lose a piece of yourself.

He'd lost Kyuubi and his people. Sure he never got along with Kyuubi, but he was a piece of him. It felt strange when he learned he was gone. He was happy, but then became saddened. With Kyuubi gone and no explanation, Naruto turned his thoughts to the Akatsuki. He didn't know if they got him or if he did some crazy jutsu that actually destroyed the Kyuubi. _Maybe I consumed him in the end, _he had once thought. With Kyuubi gone, Naruto began to miss him and eventually, wish he was still with him. Kyuubi had been a piece of him, and without him he felt empty inside.

Naruto reached over and woke Katara from her slumber. She rose up and woke her brother while the teen moved to his two companions. Toph woke up smacking her lips together. "Yesterday my mouth tasted like mud," she said groggily. Sokka smiled an insane smile as Katara moved to Aang. "Now it tastes like sand. Never thought I'd miss the taste of mud so much," she grumbled while rising.

Katara got to Aang and he rolled over before she could touch him. "I'm awake. I couldn't sleep," he told her. Looking over at the moon, something fluttered into the light and Aang blinked for a moment. "Appa," he finally cried.

Sokka crawled towards Momo and rubbed his tail in his face. "Appa? But why would Princess Yui need him? She's the Moon! She's flies around by herself?"

The object in the sky came into full view and Katara looked away. "It's just a cloud," she murmured. Naruto grabbed some more water and handed one of the pouches to Toph as Katara began asking Aang to bend the water from the cloud into her pouch. He snatched it away and flew up at the cloud. "He doesn't have to be so rude," she whispered. Aang returned and tossed it to her. She looked inside and then shook her head. "There's hardly any in here."

"I'm sorry, okay! It's a desert cloud, I did all I could!" Aang lashed out. Naruto took a step forward, ready to defend Katara. "What's anyone else doing?! What are you doing to help?!"

Naruto growled and took a step towards the teen only to be stopped by Katara. "I'm trying to keep everyone together," she answered quietly. She turned her focus to her chart. She wanted to not look into those angry eyes of his at the moment. "Let's just get moving. We need to head in this direction."

Zentrai shook his head and began walked alongside Lyra. Naruto brought up the rear of the group with his newly made clones to hold the remainder of their gear.

They were down to only a dozen pouches filled with water. Naruto knew that they wouldn't last long in the desert heat. Their food was going mostly to Shibaru and Rai, as they both needed their strength to fight more than they did. Naruto could last a few days without food, just like Lyra and Zentrai. He hadn't thought about the teens and he hadn't even bothered to eat any of it himself. He was too focused on getting them out of the-

-Toph fell face first into the sand screaming as she did. She rubbed her foot while screaming, "Crude! I am so sick of not feeling where I'm going!" She paused and looked down at the object that caused her to trip. "And what idiot buried a boat in the middle of the desert?!"

"A boat?" Katara asked.

"Believe me; I kicked it hard enough to feel plenty of vibrations."

Katara moved towards it and rubbed the wood object that barely stuck out of the sand. Naruto eyed it and pulled Lyra and Zentrai back as Aang created whirlwind to uncover it. Katara was quick to jump on it, discovering that it was actually one of the gliders that Sandbenders used.

"It's one of the gliders the Sandbenders use. And look," she tapped the glass on a small compass. "It's got some kind of compass on it. I beat it can point us out of here. Aang, you can bend a breeze so we can sail it. We're going to make it!" She cheered.

Naruto and Zentrai removed the gear from the two pets and began loading up the thing. They positioned everything neatly and faraway from the edges as best they could. When the gear was loaded up, Naruto dug up Momo, whom Sokka had buried for no apparent reason, and loaded everyone else up. Once onboard, Aang began bending a breeze so they could sail across the sand. Katara continued to eye her chart as they did this though.

Naruto took the time to rest and dispel his clones. When this happened, Katara turned her focus on him and said, "How did you manage to do that? How can you make copies of yourself?"

The former Jinchuuriki inclined his head, forcing her to sigh. He smiled and looked back towards the horizon. "It's a ninja skill I learned a long time ago," he leaned back against the side of the "Command Station" and explained further. "I'm from a village of ninjas that died out a long time ago. They were attacked by another village and sort of died out. A lot of them survived but most of them were still killed. In the end I sort of remained and became an assassin in the hopes of ending the war somehow. Never truly thought it through, though…"

The Waterbending Master shrugged and looked back down at her charts. "This compass doesn't seem to be pointing north according to my charts." She observed.

"Take it easy little lady," Sokka ordered. He was a bit too drunk for Naruto's comfort. "I'm sure the sand folks who built this thing know how to get around here?" He slurred his words and kicked his feet off the other end while holding Momo's tail as the little critter tried to fly in the other direction.

Katara dismissed his words with a sigh and looked out towards the distance. Something large and bulky stood in the distance. She eyed it carefully and then proclaimed, "That's what the compass is pointing to. That giant rock! It must be the magnetic center of the desert!"

"A rock? Yes! Let's go!" Toph screamed. Lyra nodded in agreement. She couldn't bend out here in the desert.

"Maybe we can find some water there?" Katara stated. Naruto once more touched another pouch that held water. Katara only wanted more water so she could have something to bend.

"Maybe we can find some Sandbenders," Aang whispered.

Naruto heard him, along with Zentrai. They traveled in silence until they reached the giant rock. Naruto gave Zentrai a strange glance but the teen shook his head. He wasn't responsible for this nor could he sense any form of a magnetic pull either. It puzzled them but they still climbed to the surface. Naruto reached it first, followed by Aang and then Sokka and Katara. Lyra got up with Zentrai on Shibaru while Rai puffed from the ground to the surface.

When Toph reached the surface, she smiled, waved a hand, and then crashed onto the ground. "Finally… Solid ground," she proclaimed in joy. Naruto smiled and watched her stand. She was really happy to be on solid ground. Not that he could complain about it. She couldn't see like normal people and she was basically blind out here in the desert.

They moved into one of the tunnels and began soaking in the cool shade it provided.

Sokka exhaled and breathed deeply as he said, "I think my head is starting to clear out the cactus." Zentrai shook his head, a signal to his blond friend that Sokka wasn't still in his right mind. "And look!" Naruto waited for the stupid moment. Sokka dipped one hand in the wall juice, which reminded him of honey from a beehive, and took a bite of it while feeding some to Momo. The two tasted it, turned green, and then spat it while Sokka shouted, "It tastes like rotten penguin meat." His stomach growled. "I feel woozy!"

Katara went red in the face while Naruto had to fight hard to keep from laughing. "You've been hallucinating on cactus juice all day! And _then_ you just go and lick something you find stuck to the wall of a cave?!"

"I have a natural curiosity." He defended.

"_Some curiosity," _Zentrai sent to Naruto. The blond chuckled and continued walking. Rai began to growl and looked ready to kill something. _"Something's in here! A lot of something, actually!" _He shouted to the two assassins.

"I don't think this is a normal cave," Toph announced. She touched the wall and chewed on her lower lip. She could sense something inside here. "This was carved by something."

"Yeah…" Aang whispered. "Look at the shape."

"There's something buzzing in here. Something that's coming for us!"

"We need to leave! Now!" Naruto grabbed Toph and took off running for the exit. The others hastily turned to follow while Rai got low to the ground. "Rai! Come on!" Naruto ordered. Rai whimpered and then turned to follow.

They exited the tunnel and dove for cover as Buzzard-Wasps flew over their head. Naruto cursed and jumped back to his feet. Zentrai was covering Aang while Lyra had formed an earth dome over Katara and Sokka for protection. Naruto glanced down and spied Toph under his form. She was blushing like mad. The teen jumped to his feet, whistled to Zentrai, and watched the insects as they circled them. Zentrai retrieved one of his massive swords and flung it in Naruto's direction. It cut one of the creatures down and then got to the blond teen.

Weapon in hand, Naruto jumped up and cut two in half before dropping to the ground. Toph waited for anything to touch down. She couldn't see them in the air. She had to wait for them to land. One of them finally landed and was hurled into the air when she raised the rock it had landed it on. She heard its insides crunch and its hard exoskeleton crack under the force of the blow. One of them flew between her and Sokka and she hurled a rock in the general direction. It slammed down directly in front of the Water Tribe warrior, leaving him baffled and terrified.

"What are you doing?" He asked. "That rock almost crushed me!"

"Sorry! I can't see where they are in the air!"

Sokka ran by her screaming a battle cry and swinging wildly. He swung and swung and swung until Katara shouted at him. "Sokka! There's nothing there!"

The teen stopped, scratched his head, and then smiled innocently. "I guess my head's not as clear as I thought," he mused.

Lyra raised a small stone and skewered one of the insects as it made a pass towards Toph and Sokka. "We have to get out of here! I'm completely out of water to bend!" Katara cried. One of the creatures flew down and grabbed Momo as he tried to keep himself from getting captured. He failed and instantly had Aang coming to his rescue. Aang went to get Momo and Katara watched as Zentrai, Lyra, and Naruto tried to cut down the bugs as best they could with the help of Rai and Shibaru when they were close to the ground.

"Come on! We're going down!"

Naruto gave a nod as he jumped off the edge. He threw Zentrai's weapon into the air as he fell. Zentrai followed suit and opened up his weapon racks. Dozens of blades flew into the air as he landed and began to spin around him while spinning. They formed a protective shield around him and were sent flying into anything that got within his range. Katara pushed Toph along the way while keeping an eye out for anything that might bring them harm.

Lyra dropped down in front of them and shot a rock straight out, hitting one of them. "We have to hurry! I can't keep this up forever!" She announced. Katara mouthed a silent thank you as she followed her. "Zentrai, can't you kill them faster with your weapons?" She taunted. The mute gave her a hostile glare and then jumped off the side. His blades spun rapidly and two formed under his feet. He landed on them and hovered in the air. The bugs turned to him and attacked. "Not what I had in mind, you idiot!"

"Is he dumb or something?" Katara asked.

"Only when his life's in danger," Naruto replied with a snicker. He could already hear Zentrai ranting at him.

They got the surface and ran towards their sand glider. More of the bugs dropped down and got ready for a fight. Naruto cursed as they started to move for their gear. The ground rumbled and he moved back as a mountain of sand rose and crushed some of the creatures. Others took a hasty flight and retreated. Naruto watched them fly away before turning his attention to their saviors. Turbans, white and tan colored clothing with hardly any skin being shown: they were Sandbenders.

Naruto started scouting them out with Lyra. She smiled when she found one with a broken nose. He looked angry with them as they moved down into the sandy floor. Aang soon appeared and the elder of the group spoke to them. Naruto dismissed him and started at the others. Zentrai began probing their minds and started to growl. More than one of them that had aided in capturing Appa was here, and one of them was the one that stabbed Lyra.

"What are you doing in our land with a Sandbender's sailor? From the looks of it, you stole it from the Hami tribe." The elder said.

"We found the sailor abandoned in the desert. We're traveling with the Avatar." Katara explained. The elder looked to Aang for a moment and then smiled slightly. "Our Bison was stolen and we have to get to Ba Sing Se."

The teen with the broken nose stepped forward. "You dare accuse our people of theft while you ride in on a stolen sand sailor?"

Naruto sighed and grabbed Zentrai's shoulder. The teen was ready to jump, as was Shibaru and Rai. "Where's Appa?" Naruto asked. The Sandbenders looked at him funny. "I was there at the library when the Bison was stolen. On top of that, I recognize Lyra's handiwork on your face, boy."

"You're also the one that stole Appa," Toph announced. "I never forget a voice." The teen looked ready to fight until Aang stepped forward, his staff in hand and pointing at the man's face.

"You stole Appa! Where is he? What did you do to him?"

"They're lying! They're the thieves!" He pleaded.

Aang growled and swung his staff. A blast of wind and one of their sand sailors was destroyed. "Where is my Bison?" He screamed. They didn't seem convinced into talking. "You tell me where he is, now!" He swung his weapon and another one of the sailors was destroyed.

The elder turned towards his son and asked, "What did you do?"

"It… It wasn't me?"

"You said to put a muzzle on him!" Toph announced.

Zentrai dropped to one knee as he felt his mind get flooded with images. Aang slipped into the Avatar-State as a result to this and Zentrai practically began to cry as a thousand faces flooded his vision. "You muzzled Appa?!" Another sailor was destroyed.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know it belonged to the Avatar!" He pleaded.

"Tell me where Appa is!" Aang shouted.

"I… I traded him… to some merchants. He's probably in Ba Sing Se. They were going to sell him there. Please… we'll escort you out of the desert! We'll help however we can!"

Zentrai shook off the effects as he was finally able to pull himself out of Aang's mind. He jumped to his feet as Shibaru bit his arm and started pulling him away. He dropped his large swords and ran with her. Naruto ran with Sokka as he grabbed Toph while screaming for them to run. A dome of wind covered Aang as a hurricane formed over them. Naruto stopped when he got near the teen and grabbed him by his collar.

The Sandbender screamed as he was pulled towards Aang. "You tell me who you sold him to!" Naruto ordered. He was too scared to speak. Naruto dragged him straight towards Aang as the hurricane picked up force. Katara neared Aang and Naruto made his face strike the dome of wind. He screamed in pain from Naruto's grip on his neck. "Talk! Now!" Naruto shouted. He paused when he saw Aang's tears and tore the man away from them. He couldn't do this. He wanted to earn their trust. He let the teen go and watched Katara pull Aang back to reality.

The dome of wind vanished, leaving only a crying Avatar behind. Katara took deep breaths and looked up at Naruto. He still looked pretty pissed over the whole thing. When the assassin turned to watch the Sandbender flee, he threw a weapon in the air and it smacked into another weapon. "Zentrai," Naruto screamed. Everyone froze. "You can kill him later. Right now I want to know who he sold the Bison to. Get the information from him. I don't care how."

Before he could speak he was grabbed by the mute and slammed face first into the ground. Zentrai brought one leg up high and brought it down on the teens' calve. It shattered instantly. He started screaming. _"Shut the fuck up!" _Zentrai's mental voice screamed into everyone. Toph, Sokka, Katara and Aang blinked. The Sandbenders took a step back. _"You tell me where he is now, or I swear I'll leave as a skinless man!"_

"I… hear a voice in my head." He laughed.

Zentrai snarled and grabbed him by both sides of his head. He applied pressure and he screamed. The teen began to wiggle about as lightning arched over Zentrai's arms. He was probably about to fry his brain, but he didn't care. He just wanted to torture him for harming Lyra and for stealing something that wasn't theirs. The teen stopped wiggling and started spouting off random things. He was far worse than when Sokka was clearly high on his cactus juice.

After two minutes of torture, Zentrai dropped him and stepped on his crotch as hard as he could. The teen didn't even scream. He remained prone on the ground.

Zentrai turned towards another and stabbed him in the side. He dropped, but not dead. He screamed for a moment until Zentrai kicked him in the teeth. Then he shut up and began whimpering as he backed away. _"That's for stabbing Lyra. If any of you dare try to harm me or anyone else, I will obliterate all of you!" _He turned and snapped orders to the elder. The man hastily moved his men to the remaining sailor as the teens all got on it. _"Now get us out of this desert and the closest way to Ba Sing Se. If you even think of taking us in the wrong direction, it will be your last mistake." _He snapped.

The men shut up and started doing their job. The two wounded teens kept their distance of them and watched them carefully. They didn't want to die or lose their hands. Even to their people, theft was a dangerous crime. If you were caught the usual punishment was to have your hand cut off. They really didn't want to have that happen.

When things calmed down, Katara turned and eyed the mute. "How…? How did you talk in my head?"

Naruto licked his lips. "He's a telepath," he answered. Toph scrunched her nose up at that. "His people were born without vocal cords. And since he's a Magnetism-Bender, he speaks with his mind. He's a mute, but he just talks with his mind." Naruto paused and then looked to Toph. "I suppose the best way to put it is that he's like Toph. He can't speak normally so he speaks with his mind. Toph can't see with her eyes, so she sees with Earthbending. He's the same pretty much."

"What did he do to that guy," Sokka asked.

"_I forced the information I needed from his mind," _he answered quietly. He was eyeing Lyra. She looked ready to pounce on the two men. _"I can read minds as well, but only surface thoughts. Had I known they were in the area, I wouldn't have gone down into the Library to save you guys. I would have stayed on the surface and fought them off. I should have stayed on the surface." _

"No. You did the right thing," Naruto stated quickly. The teens gave him a puzzled glance. "I'm to blame for this. I should have made clones to help in holding the library up. But to do so I would have had to do it before we reached the thing. When I got there I started using my power and it would have done me no good. It would have drained me faster. I could have created them to get you guys, but the same thing would have happened. I doubt I would have had the strength to keep holding the thing up. So I had to choose the only safest route in my eyes."

Aang snorted but continued to cry. He didn't care about anything at the moment.

Naruto gave him a quick glance and then turned away. "When we get to the nearest village, we'll put a post out to our spies to have them hunt down Appa. They'll find him. Believe me. You just need to have a little faith now, Aang." He told the younger teen. Aang said nothing. He buried his head deeper into Katara's chest and continued to cry.

The teen with the broken nose stepped forward licking his lips. "Listen… I'm sorry about what I did. I just needed the money and…"

"I'm cutting off one of your fingers when we get out of the desert," Lyra informed him. He crept back over to his spot and she looked at the other man. He was being treated for his injuries. "You leave him be!" She hissed. They looked up. "You touch him again and I'll tear your arms off. He stays as he is. If he dies. He dies. If he lives. He lives. Understand?" They nodded and backed away from the man. He started to cry as he bled out on the sailor.

Sokka shook his head. "You can't just do that. That's not right."

"Neither is stealing Appa." Naruto informed him. He ran a hand through his hair and pulled his hood down. He took the band off his hair and let it blow in the wind. "This world is far from peaceful, Sokka. People steal and those that are caught are punished. In some villages, the person is put to death. In others they have their hands or fingers cut off. That man tried to kill Lyra for protecting the Bison. He deserves more than what he's getting at the moment. If I were punishing them, I'd just send them to our friend, Den, and have him torture them for days before throwing them back out into the world. He'd destroy everything about them and leave them for dead."

"But it's still wrong."

"Would you be saying the same thing if they were Fire Nation?" Lyra asked. She messaged her side and took a deep breath. Sokka shut up and turned away. "How long until we're out of the desert," she asked the elder.

"A few hours," he answered.

She turned her gaze towards the teen. "You have until we're out of the desert to enjoy your ten fingers. When we reach the outside of the desert, I'm taking one of your fingers and feeding it to Rai." Rai smacked his lips and began to eye the slowly dying man with a watery mouth. "If you're buddy dies, I'm feeding him to Shibaru and Rai. He won't get a proper burial." She added. The man shuddered slightly and would later die and be fed upon by Rai and Shibaru.

Hours passed before they reached the edge of the desert. The elder let them off and watched with a stone expression as his son lost hi ring finger. Instead of cutting it off, Lyra simple broke it and then continued to tear on it until it came off. The poor teen screamed through all of this and never stopped after she managed to yank it free from his body. Left with a missing digit, it was obvious that it would eventually get infected and would plague his entire hand which would later be cut off as a result.

After another night of camping the teens all seemed to grow a sort of bound with the assassins. Katara started it off by offering them fresh food that Sokka managed to slay for them, only for Naruto to thumb a direction in their campsite where Lyra was cooking something. Not exactly put off by this, Katara and the others soon joined them in eating rice and meat while Aang just ate the rice. They ate in silence until Naruto offered Sokka some water.

"Here you are," Naruto said as he threw it to him. Sokka caught it and gulped it down. Naruto looked at their bags and then eyed the now eighteen water pouches. "Strange. I thought I counted seven when we left the desert."

"Why is it so dark outside?" Sokka suddenly asked.

The blond assassin narrowed his eyes and turned towards Zentrai. "Zentrai…" He growled.

"_I didn't do it!" _

"You son of bitch!" Lyra and Naruto went after him, screaming ways in which they were going to kill him. Katara watched them run around the campfire laughing with Toph while a clearly drunk/high Sokka stared up at the sky constantly asking what happened to all the lights and begging for Princess Yui to give him a ride in the clouds.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki

Chapter 12

"They haven't turned up anything on a Flying Bison," Naruto informed Lyra and Zentrai.

It had been roughly a week since they got out of the desert and during that time Naruto had devoted a lot of his time asking people in neighboring villages for anything they might know on Appa. Usually Zentrai would gone with him, but after exiting the desert he had chose to stick close to the Avatar's group, which was strange since he usually tended to keep his distance from them.

During this time Aang had also shifted completely. No longer did he care for anything on an emotional level. He tried to kill his emotions and be the true idea of a ninja in Naruto's eyes. He was cold, almost uncaring, and usually had very little to say. He didn't even complain when Toph took his staff again and used it to crack nuts. Katara had to intervene and take it away from her, nearly resulting in another fight between the two.

The only good thing was that their little gangs were getting along. Naruto spent most of his time around Sokka, letting him see their maps and comparing them to the ones he got from the Spirit Library. Sokka never asked questions about where he got his maps or how accurate they were when he compared them to the Spirit Library maps he got. If Sokka asked him about anything, it was his fighting style and why he didn't use a sword or some form of large blade.

True to the fact that girls needed to stick together, Katara and Toph spent most of their time, when they weren't training Aang, with Lyra. Toph spent more time with her though. Toph spent most of her time asking about her ability to Earthbend. The two had compared their abilities once already and learned that Toph was a better bender. When it came to hand-to-hand combat, however, Toph came up short and had been left on the floor.

As for Zentrai, he spent most of his time by himself and scouting ahead of them when need be. Naruto had asked him once on why he was like this, but he simply stated that he had things to do.

The blond assassin shifted slightly and looked over to Sokka. "You find anything interesting yet," he asked. Sokka shook his head as he pulled out another map. He unrolled it and sat it down on the rock he was on.

After a few days of traveling they had arrived at a small lake to bath and play for a little while. They needed rest and would spend the day just messing around until tomorrow morning. Lyra moved next to Toph at the water's edge, her feet dangling into the water, and set them in a moment later. Zentrai moved straight to the edge of the water and watched the fish swim around in pure fear as the teens all swam in their little home.

"Waterbending Bomb!" Katara shouted. Naruto and Sokka had a full two seconds to question it before a large tidal wave came crashing down on them. The maps and scrolls got soaked and the splash knocked Aang out of the water and destroyed his ice block he trapped himself in.

Everyone started laughing as Katara pulled herself out of the water. "Sure," Sokka said casually. "Five thousand year old maps from the Spirit Library. Just splash some water on them."

Katara rang her hair out. "Sorry," she giggled. She bent the water of the map and moved next to him as he got off the wet rock. He searched for a dry spot and then found one.

"So did you figure out what route we're going to take?" Aang asked.

Sokka pointed to a dark spot on the map. "Okay, we just got out of the desert so we must be around here," he shifted to a tan colored part of the map and then pointed to Ba Sing Se. "And we need to go to Ba Sing Se is here. It looks like the only passage connecting to the South to the North is this sliver of land called the Serpents Pass." He explained. Naruto eyed it strangely.

"You're sure that's the best way to go?" Toph asked.

"It's the only way. It's not like we have Appa." He said without concern.

"Shush up about Appa," Katara hissed in a whisper. "Can't you at least be sensitive?"

Aang hugged his legs to his chest and said, "Katara, its okay. I know I was upset about losing Appa before. But now I just wanna focus on getting to Ba Sing Se and telling the Earth King about the Solar Eclipse."

"Oh… well I'm glad to know you're doing better."

"Then to Ba Sing Se we go. No more distractions," Sokka announced.

Naruto was about to say something when a friendly call went out. "Hello there, fellow refuges!" The group turned and eyed them strangely as they approached. There were three of them. One was a male, clearly the father/husband, and the other two were females, one being pregnant and the other being a young woman. Zentrai perked up when he saw the young woman, but was quickly snapped back into proper order from a quick cough by Lyra.

"So are you heading to Ba Sing Se?" Aang asked

"Sure are," the man replied. "We're trying to get there before my wife, Yin, has her baby." The man told them.

"Great! We can travel through the Serpents Pass together." Katara said happily.

The family shivered at the mention of the pass. "The Serpents Pass? Only the truly desperate take that deadly route."

"Deadly route," Toph mocked. She punched Sokka in the side, knocking him flat on his ass. "Great pick, Sokka."

"Well we are desperate." He replied while rubbing his arm.

"You should come with us to Full Moon Bay. Ferries take refuges across the lake. It's the fastest way to Ba Sing Se."

"And it's hidden so the Fire Nation can't find it!" Yin added.

The group took a moment to consider the two options. "Peaceful Ferry ride or deadly pass," Katara mocked. Her brother gave her a flat look and then turned away. He made sure to glare at Naruto and Zentrai. He figured they might have known about it.

The three assassins shrugged as they loaded up their gear and began moving out. Zentrai took point with Shibaru and lead the way to Full Moon Bay. By the time they had reached the place, Yin was winded from her traveling and needed to rest before the mouth of a large cave. Two Earthbenders in green and brown uniforms stepped out and gave a quick nod. Yin's family helped move her along while Aang took point with the mute. They reached a dead end and waited as instructed. The wall groaned and then opened up to reveal a large port hidden in the mouth of a larger cave.

Naruto took one look and shuddered. "Hard to believe that this was all the Fire Nation's doing," he said solemnly. Katara nodded as they moved towards a large line. The blond gave Zentrai a quick glance when he seemed to turn towards one of the boats. "Something on your mind?" Zentrai shook his head. Naruto shrugged and turned to Lyra. "I mean no disrespect for Ba Sing Se or your dreams, but you are aware that if the war doesn't end soon, they will take Ba Sing Se?"

Sokka scoffed at that. "The city has only been penetrated once, and that was by the Dragon of the West, but he was quickly expunged."

"Nothing is impenetrable. I've seen absolute defenses fall in my time. There isn't a single thing that can be called an absolute defense 'less it's guarded by a Spirit. That's all I'm saying."

"Where else could we turn?" Yin asked carefully. Naruto thought about that for a moment before shrugging. "There isn't a place in the world that is safe from them. The only true place is Ba Sing Se." Naruto kept his mouth shut. He'd heard plenty of rumors about the city and didn't much care for it. If you wanted to remain ignorant to the outside world, Ba Sing Se was the place to go. They had only one small piece of information that kept Naruto practically out of the city.

_Long Feng, _he thought.

They had very few reports on the man and his illegal actions inside the city. Yes his idea was a good one. It stopped panic and fear. No one truly spoke about the war to begin with. Their lives were peaceful and just. But they were taking on too many people at a time. There was no more room to grow in the city unless you moved out from one of the outer rings into one of the inner rings of the city where your homes were bigger, fancier, and you had more elbow room.

But for all his good he did more bad as well. People that spoke out against the war vanished without a trace. The man was in charge of an elite group of Earthbenders, his Dai Li Agents, and held more power than the King did. He was the "True Ruler" of the city for all his political and military power. The King was just a figurehead for him to control. That, coupled with his blackmailing, random acts of violence for those that fail to see things his way, and his way he treated people made him a seriously bad dude.

"Passports," Naruto was jarred from his train of thought at the sound of the angry women. "Do I need to call security?"

Naruto groaned and reached into one of his pouches. He hadn't been paying attention and Toph managed to get them their tickets. They hadn't been part of her group and thus left behind. Not on purpose though. Naruto pulled out a small white piece of paper stenciled with gold and red writing on it. It bore a pyramid symbol in the center with a single slitted eye running down the middle of it. To anyone that understood anything about ancient cultural, it looked like the All Seeing Eye, when in fact it was just a pyramid with a slitted eye. It served as Naruto's official seal. Anyone who saw it knew exactly who he was.

The lady gave it a glance, paled, looked at him, his two pets, Lyra and Zentrai and without a word handed them their tickets. Naruto snatched them and his seal away from her. He shoved the tickets into his friend's chest and began walking.

"_I hate the fact that we're heading to Ba Sing Se," _Naruto told Zentrai silently. Zentrai passed Naruto's complaints on to Lyra. She just nodded while stifling a yawn. _"Long Feng has been on our list for a long time. No one can raise a finger on him though. The man's smart. Real smart actually. If we even take a step inside the city, he'll know about us and have us under his bloody eyes all day long. I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to kill us." _

"_He can't do anything to us though without physical proof," _Zentrai replied. He shifted the pack on his back a bit and then yawned. _"I can't believe we're about to head to Ba Sing Se either. Chances are pretty high that the Drill will still be standing. We may have to deal with it. Reaper and her team might not have gotten to it by now or were probably caught."_

"_There's no way in hell they were caught," _Naruto snapped at him. The mute shook his head. _"If they were caught, it would only be to kill everything in sight. Those three are extremely bloody. They aren't known like we are, but they're pretty well known for being bloody monsters. I just hope that they left Azula alive. Rehka would probably be pissed if they killed her. She clearly wants her to suffer from what she did, even though she was the one to ask for us to spare her. She just wants her to suffer and wallow in her own shame for what she'd done."_

They talked no more as they approached the teens. They were huddled on one of the small towers that overlooked the wall and fleet of boats that crossed the lake. And they had one of the guards with them. It was a female guard, one that Naruto instantly recognized as Suki, from Kyoshi Island. They moved swiftly to their side and when they stopped beside them, Suki stared at them for a brief moment.

"It's good to see you again, Suki. Never thought you'd leave your home," Naruto greeted. "What gives with that?"

She ran up and hugged him and then Lyra. Zentrai was left without a hug. He wasn't paying attention to Suki. But the female warrior had a mad blush on her face when she saw him. She turned to Naruto and said, "After Aang and his friends came to our island, we got involved in the war. We've been helping as best we can." Naruto looked her over and she was force to repeat herself. "The crabby lady at the desk makes all the security guards wear this."

"That sucks," Lyra snorted out. Suki nodded while receiving a strange look from the other teens. Lyra shifted and smiled. "We ran into Suki and her people almost two years ago. Back then we were still doing just mission for the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe to help end the war. The mission was simple. We needed to provide escort for a large deployment of merchants that would give food to troops on the battlefield. The caravans were blocked on the land and we had to use the sea to get to them. We got attacked and needed repairs so we found their island and they let us stay 'till we got repaired. That's how we know Suki and her people."

"Yeah," Suki replied. "They came to our village and helped us out for a little bit. With Naruto and Lyra we were able to clear more land a little easier because we needed more room to grow crops. Our population had grown a bit and we were certain we'd run out of crops before the end of the next season. In exchange for repairs they helped us move trees and farm the land until it was done. Far trade."

Toph could feel Suki's heartbeat speeding up and her breathing turn into a series of rapid small breaths. She grinned. "Was Zentrai with them back then as well?" Suki nodded mutely. Again he breathing and heartbeat sped up. "Just asking."

"Avatar Aang," Yin shouted. The teens turned and found the small family huddled near the wall. "You have to help us! Someone stole all of our belongings! Our passports! Our tickets!"

"I'll talk to the lady for you!" He jumped off the tower and ran to the crabby lady.

Naruto shook his head as Zentrai sent to them, _"She won't give out the tickets," _Suki nodded. _"We'll have to take them through the Serpents Pass to get them to Ba Sing Se. Just because we're well known assassins won't work here. We got our tickets the first time because she wanted us gone. Now we have a reason to leave because of our tickets and she'll have a backbone." _

The others teens, minus Suki, went to Aang. Suki nodded silently as if she had just been told about a new mission to take. "I'll go get dressed. I'll be coming with you." She moved pass them all and vanished.

"_Why do you think Sakura wants to come with us?" _Zentrai sent to the others dumbly.

Naruto slapped a hand to his face. And as always, Zentrai totally messed up the name of any girl he ever had sex with. _Why can't he just remember the names of every girl he does it with? _

(-)

Naruto wasn't surprised when they were forced to take the Serpents Pass. If he was surprised, it was by the fact that Zentrai had called Suki a variety of different names by the time they reached the place. He had called her Kasumi, Ayane, Len, Wild Fire, Blue Babe, and the last one being Rika. Naruto didn't get how the man could remember the names of people he hadn't had sex with and possibly never met, yet always get the names of the women he had had sex with wrong. To the blond it was worse than a one night stand date where you tell them you'll write to them or come by and see them again and you never do.

And of course as they reached the shrine that marked the pass, Naruto half listened to Aang as he explained things to people without emotion in his voice.

"This is the Serpents Pass," Sokka said. "I thought it would be more windy, like a serpent. I guess they misnamed it."

"Look at this writing," Yin said unhappily. "How awful."

"What does it say," Toph asked.

"It says abandon hope," Katara read.

"How can we abandon hope when that's all we have?" Yin asked.

"I don't know," Aang whispered. "The Monks used to say that hope is just a distraction. So maybe we do need to abandon it."

"What are you talking about?" Katara inquired.

"Hope is going to get us into Ba Sing Se. And it's not going to find Appa. We need to focus on what we're doing right now. And that's getting across this pass."

"Okay… if you say so."

Naruto kept his mouth shut as he followed the teens. Like always, Zentrai took point with Shibaru while Lyra and Naruto brought up the rear with Rai. The path they took put them on the western side of it. If Fire Nation ships came by and were looking hard enough they'd easily spot them. The only reason Naruto believed they wouldn't was because the rocks that lined the side of the pass went under the water and made it impossible for large ships to get close. Only small rowboats would get close enough to the cliff side, and then they'd have to climb the wall. It would be like stabbing fish in a barrel.

"So why are you guys with the Avatar?" Naruto gave Suki a strange glance. She had slowed down to be between the two assassins. "Is it because you were ordered to?"

"Yeah," Naruto drawled out.

She smiled. "It's good to know Zentrai's got his head out of his ass then. I was wondering when he'd start taking things seriously again."

"Rehka ordered it, actually. She took over a few weeks ago," Naruto explained. Suki gave him a strange glance and he smiled. "She was finally convinced after she and her girls got captured by Azula and we had to rescue them. Azula only learned of their location because we were working with them. We got orders to get close to the Fire Lord and kill him before we learned that Aang was back. When that happened, we used our powers to capture Aang, though at the time we didn't know he was the Avatar. Anyways, Azula captured them and we went and rescued them. We destroyed two or three battalions of troops and left their stronghold as nothing more than a monument to death."

"I heard about that," Suki whispered. "They say that only one person was left alive, but was marked by you two. Why'd you even let one person live? That's like you guys, yeah, but after what they did, why'd you do it?"

"Rehka didn't want us to kill anymore. I was going to kill Azula right there on the spot but she stopped us. Instead, we gave her two marks that will stay with her unless she can remove a piece of her skull without killing herself. I doubt she can."

They traveled in silence for a long time before Suki asked, "You wouldn't know what they're building on the other side of the lake would you?"

Naruto hesitated to answer but knew she'd find out eventually. "It's a giant drill that they'll use to dig through the walls of Ba Sing Se." She turned away and looked towards the family a moment later. "Don't tell them. We had an elite team sent to take care of it. It might already be destroyed for all we know."

"Or it could still be up and running." Her gaze turned to the family and then towards Naruto. "They should know."

"No. Hope is what's keeping that family alive and together at the moment. A baby can help in keeping them together for only so long. Hope is what's keeping them together. They hope that this war will end soon and that the walls of Ba Sing Se will keep them safe."

"But it won't if the drill is still working."

"And if it isn't working than they will he fretted over nothing." Suki conceded and sighed. Naruto smiled. "Does Zentrai have any kids over there?"

She smiled. "Two," she answered happily. "They were very happy when they had the children. They named them Zen. Handsome little devils they are. One of them loves to play with knives and swords while the other one loves to be pampered and has all the women of the village practically eating out of his hands." The blond assassin smiled. "And no, they don't have his ability. They're vocal cords work and they both are normal kids."

"What about the mothers? Do they want him to return?"

"No. They actually like not having him around. I can't believe they don't want him around either, but they have the village to help them. It's a shame that they don't want him around. He was very useful during your stay." She blushed again as she remembered her time with him. "Will you guys ever come back to our village? Our elder enjoyed having you and Lyra around."

Naruto shook his head just as Zentrai's voice filtered into everyone's mind. _"Fire Nation ship… Take cover." _

The group hustled into hiding places as it passed without spotting them. Naruto kept his gaze locked on the thing, wishing it had spotted them. It passed them by without trouble. Once Zentrai gave the all clear, they started moving again.

Sokka ran back to Suki to check on her and gave the two assassins a strange look. "Suki, are you okay?" She nodded and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness." He patted her on the shoulder and resumed walking beside them. "So what have you three been talking about?"

"We were talking about Zentrai and when he might try to settle down with a girl." Suki lied. She liked Sokka. She really did. And she didn't want him knowing that she had a one night stand with Zentrai a few years ago. It might destroy him and whatever chance for a relationship she might have with him later on.

Lyra snorted at her words. "Zentrai will only settle down after he's gotten himself a harem," she snapped. Suki laughed. "But I suppose he truly wants to have a family. The more he talked about it during our time before I was forced to work at the Tower of Silence under his rule; he wanted nothing more than a family. He'd even give up his dream of having a harem instead of just one wife. He wants a big family because he loves children. Before the older soldiers began dying off and the age of enlistment dropped, he spent a lot of his time doing tricks to entertain the children we came across. But now most of those kids are either dead, soldiers, or freedom fighters."

"For a guy that tries to have sex with every female he comes across, he sure does keep to himself." Sokka observed.

Naruto shook his head. "He's only been that way since we left the desert and after he got his stuff from the library. He probably wants to know more about his people. He's truly one of the last of his kind. He even told me that the blood that created him is diluted to the point that almost all nations are inside him. In fact, the blood type of every nation is probably inside all of us if we think about it correctly. We're all one in the same."

"Why would you say that?"

"In the beginning, before the tribes that created your villages and cities came to be, you were all one people living in a land. When you went to explore, you moved along and adapted to your new lands. Eventually you all learned to bend the elements of the animals that you watched. But the other nation's blood that once moved through your veins has probably been diluted to the point it doesn't exist. Zentrai on the other hand would have such ties still, as his blood carries the gene that allowed him to be a Magnetism-Bender. But even it has become diluted over the years and there are very few that have it."

"So Zentrai's not really alone?" Suki asked.

"His people have no home. They have no nation and no tribe. I'd say there are probably only five people out there with his ability if I were to be honest. And those that have it probably don't have the control like he does. They probably didn't have the resolve that he had or the knowledge that he has now on how to use his powers. He is utterly alone. That's why he tries to fill the void in his heart with women and the dream of a big family. He wants it gone."

Sokka looked out towards the lake. "And what about you? What do you want?"

Naruto paused mid-step and then continued walking. "I just want peace. I've spent my life fighting battle after battle. I don't want to fight anymore. I hate fighting." The three teens gave him a strange glance and said nothing. He sighed and added, "I would like a wife I suppose. But I think all men would like a wife and a family. It's just our nature." The blond glanced up at the sun and then said, "We should probably find a safe place to make camp. It will be dark soon and with Yin pregnant we can't push her too hard."

"I'll let Aang know." Suki and Sokka ran towards the front of the group.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and quickly helped in making camp. He, along with five clones, moved down to the edge to go fishing. After a few hours of fishing he returned with his catch. Lyra was already ready with a pot of boiling water for his catch. Zentrai cleaned them and handed them over to Lyra for cooking. Katara helped until she saw Aang hovering near the edge of a cliff. She moved to speak with him while Naruto sat down next to Lyra.

"She's head over heels for him," she told him. Naruto nodded and watched the food get cooked. "Do you think it's been taken down yet?"

"Don't know. Reaper has never failed to kill anyone or take anything apart. If she hasn't gotten to it yet, then it would still be up."

"If we take it out, she'll be pretty mad at us." She continued to stir the contents and waited for Rai and Shibaru to return. "I'm sure that if we take it down, she'll be down our throats wanting to know why we did it. You think she'll be angry with us enough to the point she might try and kill us? She is known for attacking people that take away her kills."

Naruto shrugged as Zentrai returned with Shibaru at his side. He was holding a tome and had it opened to a page. He handed it over to Naruto and let him read it. _"My people really are monsters," _he said. Naruto read it and then gave him a quick glance. _"Don't worry. I'm not going to do it."_

Naruto closed the book and handed it to him. "You should tell Aang about it. He'd probably know what to do with it." He considered his own and then said, "You should destroy it."

"_I've tried. I can't do it." _To demonstrate, he stabbed the weapon with one of his knives and it was left without a scratch. _"The tome can't be destroyed by any weapon or single element. I bet it would take the power of all four major elements to destroy this tome. I should have just left it in the library." _He sighed. _"The owl was right. My people are monsters."_

Lyra put a comforting hand on his shoulder and then punched him in the face. He blinked and then smiled. "Just let me know if you get down again. I enjoy punching you for no reason," she said simply. He laughed and she lightly punched his arm. "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Get the others and tell them to get over here."

Naruto walked around getting the people. Yin stayed put, orders from her husband, and had her food brought to her. Naruto moved over to Suki and Sokka and informed them while Sokka walked off, leaving Suki alone on the ledge. Naruto eyed her strangely for a moment and then shrugged as he turned to leave.

When they all arrived at the campsite they feasted on fish and rice while Aang just ate the rice again. Naruto grinned. "You don't like meat?" Aang nodded as he shoveled the food into his mouth. "Never met a person that didn't eat meat. I had one friend that ate nothing but meat it seemed. His name was Chouji and he was a fat ninja." The group laughed. "That man was strong, fast, and fat. Not a great combination if you were fighting him since he could make himself bigger. If you ever wanted to talk about a fat person that could make all your food vanish, he was the man to talk about."

"How big was he?" Yin asked.

"He was a big person. I remember one time we took a mission and he fought someone that was stronger than he was and he still won that fight. Though he nearly as a result. He was a good person."

"Do you think he could eat all of our food and still be hungry?" Her husband asked.

"Yes. That man never stopped eating. And he had his own little traditions. He always got the last piece of food that sat at the bottom of a bowl or whatnot. It was considered the best piece in the whole thing. It held in the flavor and gave him extreme joy to know it was the last one." Naruto laughed for a moment and remembered the time he and Shikamaru ate chips outside his home. That was the day that Sasuke had left and they were sent to retrieve him.

"_You should tell them about Kakashi or Jiraiya,"_ Zentrai said.

Naruto laughed and fell backwards. "Kakashi… he was different. He was always reading his perverted novels that my other sensei, Jiraiya, wrote. Jiraiya, or Ero-Sennin as I called him, was a man that wrote porn novels as a form of income when he wasn't doing missions. Kakashi was probably his most rabid reader and fan. I think he had the entire collection. All probably first addition." Naruto smiled and sat up. "But Kakashi was unique. He had mastered more than a thousand skills and was called the Copy-Nin as a result. His signature skill was Raikiri. He formed lightning energy over one hand and it made the sound of birds chirping."

"So he was Fire Nation?" Sokka asked.

"Yes and no. We lived in a ninja village where we learned all the major elements. We couldn't bend the elements like you can, but we could do different things with them. My affinity before I was injured was Wind. I would have been considered an Air Nomad then, but I can't do it anymore. I lost my Wind Affinity long ago. Kakashi had Lightning Affinity. I had one friend that had Fire and Lightning as his affinity. I never knew anyone else that had any other affinity, unless you count sand as an affinity."

Toph scrunched her nose up at that. She could tell he wasn't lying about any of it. "Did you know anyone that could have been considered an Earthbender?"

Naruto thought long and hard for a moment before saying, "Sakura Haruno and Tsunade Senju," with a sad expression. "I loved Sakura the most and she was in my age group. Sadly though, she had eyes for our Fire Affinity friend, Sasuke Uchiha. Sakura's sensei was Tsunade Senju, our village's leader. She, like Tsunade, had monstrous strength that far surpasses my own. Tsunade taught her that skill and it scared me the first day she used it. She punched the earth and it practically exploded beneath my feet. Tsunade would have been a better one since she could cause a crevice to appear with just one finger."

"Wow! She must have been a very dangerous person." Aang said.

"Yeah… Her two greatest weaknesses were drinking and gambling. She was called our villages' greatest healer, but she was also known as being the Legendary Sucker, because she actually sucked so much at gambling. I suppose I got all the luck in the village since I did win a great vast amount of money one day when we were searching for her." They all laughed at that. Naruto laughed at it too because of how many times she tried to take him with her to get rich quick.

"What about Waterbenders? Surely you must have known at least one?" Katara asked. She leaned closer to Aang and the young Avatar scooted away slightly.

"Haku," he said simply. "Haku would have been one and a wind user as well. He used water and wind to make ice. He was a skilled ninja that was known for his Makyou HyouShou. He could actually put himself inside the mirrors he created and move so fast that he actually seemed to appear everywhere inside the dome he'd create from doing this. He'd rain down senbon needles while doing this and actually kill his opponents that way."

"Wow. I had no idea your people had skills like that. Why can't you do them anymore?" Aang asked.

"I was hurt badly and it left me badly damaged. I could no longer use all of my skills and I become like another friend I had as a result. We used our energies to actually boost our skills and form other skills. I can still do my signature Kage Bunshin, but I'm limited to only five. I can still change my form to that of anything I want." He demonstrated it by turning into a fully clothing female version of himself and then into Sokka. They seemed impressed by this. "And I can still do the basics of running up a while or walking on water."

"Is there anything your people couldn't do?" Sokka asked in excitement.

The blond assassin looked away. "We couldn't have peace." He whispered. They all deflated at this. "We wanted it, but we still fought. We wanted it more than anything else, but we still fought each other. During my time at the academy we were in a cold war. But we still did mission that put us against other nations. My first time out of the village was when I ran into Haku and his master, Zabuza Momochi. Zabuza was a Waterbender I guess and was more known for his sword skills. We fought them and technically won. I say we won because their client pulled out on them and tried to have him killed. They both died though."

The group fell into a series of questions for all three parties. When the conversation shifted to Naruto and his past, he answered by talking about his time in his village and with Gen Fu. When it shifted to the journeys of Aang and his friend, they mostly talked about his travels and the people he'd helped so far. When it shifted to Yin and her family, they often spoke about their time in their village before it was taken over by the Fire Nation.

That night, Naruto was on guard duty and watched the lake with Rai at his side. He was in the middle of petting him when he began to wonder about the fate of Ty Lee. Rehka had told him that she had nothing to do with her kidnapping and had even spoken out against it. And the conversation shifted to his power. When she talked about it, she made it seem like he was some divine being that had been entrusted with a power bestowed to him by the Spirits.

Usually he would have laughed at something like that, but ever since he had gotten here he had wondered if it truly was something given to him by the Spirits for a divine reason. He had used his powers to help a lot people. He had saved more lives than there were people in his village. He had made lots friends and even passed through the ranks in his organization quickly. He was well respected and loved for his abilities.

But for all of it, he had to lose his family back in Konoha. He lost them all and he didn't know how. They were gone. There was no Konoha here in their world so he knew he must have probably jumped forward or backward through time. To him it was the only thing that made sense.

But Ty Lee, to his knowledge now, had been the first to see it. He knew of knew of no one else that had seen that thing. He could see when he used his powers. It haunted him at first, but now he didn't care. It was like he had the Kyuubi with him again, and that made him happy to know that it was still with him in essence only. And she was curious about his power and wanted to know what it was. For the first time in his life he wondered just how he could explain that anyone else that didn't know him like Zentrai or Lyra did. He had only told them and no one else because of how Lyra had taken to it.

Lyra had been horrified by it until Zentrai pulled her deep within his mind while reading Naruto's. He showed her what it was and what it could do for them to end the war. Over time she accepted it and soon found the memories she had seen to be strange and also comforting because of how Naruto used it. He had never used it for evil, even though he looked evil as hell when he did.

If Ty Lee were to learn the truth, he wondered how she would take it. He wondered for an even longer time on why he cared. _Maybe it's because of what Rehka said to me, _he thought. He shook his head and stood up. Rehka told him that she believed Ty Lee had a crush on him that even she didn't realize. But because she had seen the Kyuubi, he wondered if her crush was nothing more than a desire for an answer. _Besides, _he moved to the group as the sun began to rise, _how could she love me when she hardly knows me? _

Naruto woke them and helped Zentrai begin getting their gear together. Suki moved towards him and motioned for him to follow. Naruto left a clone to help in packing the rest of the gear as he moved off with her.

"I lied to you," she said simply. Naruto gave her a baffled look. "We'll need to speak about it away from Zentrai though. It does concern his children." Naruto nodded and then moved back to the group. Zentrai was already off scouting the path ahead. "I don't remember being this distant though. I don't mind that he gets my name wrong, but it is annoying to know that he's acting far different from what he used to. I miss the old him."

"I personally don't. I like this version of him. Besides," he patted her on the side. "Zentrai's just trying to find the right person for himself. He's alone in the world and without Lyra or me, he'd probably be even deeper in his sorrow then he sometimes is. Being alone is… well… hard on people. Knowing you're the last of your kind is tough on everyone. Even me." He smiled and gave her a nod. "Let's get these people to Ba Sing Se. We have a job to do."

(-)

General Han sighed once more as Azula left his chambers. _I am so not used to commanding royalty, _he realized. Being in charge of the operation meant that he also was also in charge of Azula. It was tough for him. He wasn't used to such a thing. Anyone who tried to command royalty would sooner slit their throat than even try such a thing. Sure during war meetings they gave ideas to Ozai, but they never tried to control him. He had seen dozens of his comrades do the same thing with him. They offered up ideas and he listened to them. But they never commanded him.

He took a deep breath and looked outside his chambers again. The fleet of tanks that guarded them had yet to break formation on both sides. They moved in perfect symmetry. And there was also the fact that his troops were easy going at the moment. When the first siege struck the wall some time ago, the troops had been restless and attacked anything that moved, even though they were under the command of General Iroh, the Fire Nation's greatest General. No other General had come out like him. He was one of a kind.

Now he would be leading a siege against the city and hopefully tear down those walls. He wanted nothing more than for this operation to run smoothly. So far nothing bad had happened. Yet everything felt like it was about to be torn apart.

General Han wasn't known for his battle smarts, which he had, but rather his gut feelings. He had always been a man to, for lack of a better term, predict danger. For him, when things ran smoothly, something was wrong.

He checked everything over again and calmly assured himself that there was nothing wrong. He checked over the crew in all sections of the place, even the boiler room. They reported that everything was running smoothly. He checked the bridge where the War Minister was. He reported the same thing. And by the time he got back to his chambers, he felt like he had once more overlooked something. And he stared back out at the tanks as they moved alongside them.

_Something isn't right, _he mused. _I'm missing something very important. _He sat down on his bed and assumed a meditating stance. _What is it that I'm missing? _

(-)

_I could've made five clones and just walked us across the damn thing, _Naruto grumbled. He knew Zentrai read his thoughts and was probably chuckling at it all. Naruto wasn't happy. This was not his style. He was completely out his zone.

After a few hours of traveling they came to a dead zone. The pass sank to the bottom of the lake and left them with no room to walk on. When they reached it, Katara came up with the bright idea of Waterbending a walkway for them by having them walk under the water. Naruto had seen people get lost a straight line before. He had suffered through it as well. It usually happened to people in a desert that weren't used to it. This counted as such an event. They would walk forward to the other side and be unharmed by anything and everything.

_If only it worked that way, _the blond grumbled. Aang was helping her do this.

There were a thousand different ways they could have done this, most of them easier than most. The first way they could have dealt with this was Naruto's method: Using clones and his ability to walk on water. The other ways included having Toph and Lyra pull the earth up and create a pass that way. They could even sink the damn thing then. They could have also had Aang and Katara freeze a bridge to the otherside. It would melt in less than thirty minutes because of the heat and would have been perfectly safe.

The list went on and on with the methods they could have used. But no. They had to do it this way and were now forced with something Naruto truly didn't like. He was underwater with limited room to fight should they run into trouble, and if they did run into trouble, they would be crushed by the instant collapse of their makeshift bubble.

And as if the universe hated them, things did go wrong. A giant sea serpent, probably the same creature that gave the pass its name, decided to try and make a meal out of them. Now they were on a small little island created by Toph, and staring down a giant sea serpent that was ready to make a meal out of them. Naruto just was not in his strong suit at the moment.

"I think I just figured out why they call it the Serpents Pass," Sokka exclaimed. It roared at them as a result. "Suki, you know about giant sea monsters! Make it go away!" He commanded.

She went red in the face, which was amazing since she wore white makeup, and yelled back, "Just because I live near the Unagi doesn't mean I'm an expert!"

Sokka reached down and grabbed Momo. "Oh great and powerful sea serpent, please accept this humble and tasty offering. Thank you."

"Sokka," Katara screamed.

The sea serpent cried out as it lunged towards them. Aang was quickly in its face and swung his staff, sending a blast of wind to smack it. It recoiled and blinked as if stunned by his attack. Aang readied his glider as he said, "I'll distract it! Katara, get everyone across!" He took off just as the thing turned and tried to bite him.

Katara hastily built an ice bridge and hurried everyone across. She turned and jumped onto the water, forming a mini-surfboard of ice beneath her feet. With a single push she surfed out into the fight and didn't think twice to look back.

Naruto cursed and stopped as he crossed the ice. "Zentrai, Lyra, get everyone to a safe place. I'm going to help them." He jumped down and ran across the water.

Zentrai stopped short and turned towards the small little island Toph had made. She seemed quite content on her little island. He quickly ran back and snatched her up. "What are you doing?" She shrieked.

"_Saving your life and doing my job," _he replied simply. She blinked once as he sat her down. Moments after getting her to the other side did the sea serpent's tail come crashing down onto the ice bridge. Zentrai took a quick look before snickering. _"I have the feeling you would have been halfway across when the bridge got destroyed and Xena would have been the one to save you. You would have thought it to be Sokka and kissed her for rescuing her, under the idea that it was actually Sokka and not Tina."_

"Who in the hell are you talking about?" Toph screamed.

"He's talking about Suki," Lyra grumbled as they all ran. Shibaru carried Yin while they ran for their lives. Suki blushed and was thankful that all the screaming was deafening to Sokka as he watched his sister, Naruto, and Aang battle the giant sea serpent. "He can't remember the name of a single girl he has sex with. It's sort of retarded, but we've never figured out why. He just can't."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Neither does that fact that Naruto has a red aura when he goes berserk." She countered. Toph submitted to her logic and stopped running when they reached a large section of land that rose up to keep them from view. Lyra looked out around it and watched as the group battled the creature. "I wonder where Naruto is."

"_He got eaten," _Zentrai said quickly.

Lyra was about to make a comment to that when the sea serpent started reeling back and screaming. Naruto forced its jaw completely open and started punching it in the eye while screaming, "You ain't ever eating me! I'm going to bust your face up!" Naruto punched away on its face, reeling back the entire time and knocking it harder in the face. It screamed loud and long as its eye was literally crushed inside its own skull.

Finally, having enough of Naruto's fist in its face, he swooped down low and flung its head straight up into the air, throwing the teen off of its face. Naruto flipped through the air and corrected his flight. He positioned himself so he would land feet-first. He came down hard on its snout and skidded down its long body. He clung to it with his chakra and pushed off as Aang and Katara began working together to work the water in to a mini-whirlpool. When Naruto landed on the side of the pass, the serpent was thrown head first into the side of it.

The serpent, aware that its meal was a lot tougher to catch than it was willing to coup with, decided to leave while it could.

Aang flew over the group with Katara hanging on for the ride. They landed and everyone cheered.

The rest of the trip worked the same way. Zentrai was out with Shibaru taking point and Naruto brought up the rear with Toph and Lyra. Sokka was at the head of the group and trying to help as much as he could. When they reached the end of the Serpents Pass, Sokka was the one to declare that he found the wall. He even was stupid and declared that they'd have a smooth sailing for here. And of course, just after saying that, Yin went into labor.

The teens moved fast under Katara's leadership. Toph made an earth tent. Sokka went to fetch some water. Aang moved to get some rags. And Suki and Lyra moved inside to help the woman out. Naruto sighed, realizing that he would be of no use and decided to fetch them all something to eat for lunch.

He moved down to the beach and started fishing again. Rai tried hunting with no luck. Realizing that there was nothing to eat other than fish; Rai jumped into the lake and started swimming for a meal. His real goal was to attract the sea serpent and eat it. Of course after an hour of trying he gave up and sat down next to Naruto, waiting and begging for something to eat. Naruto smiled and gave him all of his catch.

It took him another hour to catch enough fish for everyone back at the campsite. When he reached the campsite everyone was happy. Yin had a baby girl and had named it Hope in honor of the thing that most likely kept them all together. Naruto was quick to start a different campfire, one that was far away from the family for safety reasons and so he and Lyra could cook in peace. They shifted things around and quickly got the food dished out to everyone.

After Aang finished eating he flew directly to Ba Sing Se. Zentrai was off to scout out the area again with Shibaru at his side. Naruto brought up the rear once more with Lyra as well. It was only when Suki gave him a strange look did he stop and tell the others to keep on moving ahead. Sokka was hesitant, but did so. He had faith in Suki.

Naruto turned and walked a few meters back and stopped. Zentrai would be out of range of reading their thoughts as they spoke. "What's the deal with this kid you were telling me about?" He said quickly.

She took a deep breath and said, "One of them is a Magnetism-Bender and has shown very little control over his power." Naruto shifted slightly. She knew he was uneasy about that. "It's the one that likes to play with knives. The mother is worried that he might actually harm himself and I'm a little curious about a way for him to learn it safely."

"Zentrai should be there. If you want…"

"No. Zentrai is needed in the war. He's a powerful ally and needs to help in taking down the Fire Lord. But what I'm curious about is if there's a way for you to help the kid? The mom is worried and we don't know what to do. She wants Zentrai to come home, but she's aware that he's needed out here. He can't just stop what he's doing because of this."

Naruto ran a hand over his face. She had a valid point. Zentrai was needed out here and taking him off their active list would cripple them greatly. Zentrai, Naruto, Lyra, and dozens of other assassins were out on the field and were very powerful. Zentrai was ranked as one of the top three elite assassins. Taking him off now would cripple their forces. The only one close enough to take his spot with was a female that didn't have any bending abilities, but was well known for her ferocity in battle.

He shifted next to a rock and said, "Send a message to your people and tell them to keep the kid from doing his bending. Zentrai had to learn things the hard way. I know you've seen them from your one-night stand with him when we first came to Kyoshi Island, but he's covered with scars from just learning on his own. And he's not even a real master in the arts. He just happens to be one of the only high ranking members of his kind because they're only a handful of them left, and most don't even use their powers."

"How am I going to get him to stop though? He actually can't control it." She slapped her arms to her side and exhaled. "Before we left Kyoshi Island, he managed to, in his sleep, put every metal object in the roof of their home and three other homes as well. She needs help."

The blond sighed. "We need to end this war and fast then," he said. She rolled her eyes. "Listen, I'll talk to Zentrai about this. But he can't know that one of his kids is just like him. I know keeping secrets is bad for us, but we do need him. He'd probably rush out to see the kid. We have a few months before we have a chance to end the war. A Solar Eclipse is coming that will render the Firebenders powerless. We hope to get the Earth King's support to mount a massive invasion and end the war. If you can get back to your people and keep this kid from killing himself for that long, I promise I'll send Zentrai over as quickly as I can." He reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a bag. "Give this to the mother and the other one as well. It's my money, but I'll make Zentrai pay me back later. Give this to them. Zentrai would do the same."

She nodded and put it away. "Thanks." She embraced him in a hug and smiled. "You know…"

"I'm well aware of the fact that a few of your girls liked me, but no. Not happening." She smiled anyways. "Go say goodbye to the others that you need to. I'll make sure we get to Ba Sing Se. You have a new job to do." He patted her on the shoulder and began moving with Rai after the group. Suki ran instead while the blond walked. When she was out of ear shot, he turned to Rai and said, "We have to end this war quickly. Zentrai would be devastated if he learned that one of his kids died because he wasn't there for them."

Naruto looked towards the wall and sighed. Somehow, he just knew the drill was still operational and was on its way to the city.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki

Chapter 13

Zentrai couldn't believe his luck. Maybe he was unlucky. He didn't know if his luck was bad or good at the moment. He wasn't really certain. He considered himself unlucky for getting in this situation.

From his spot on the cliffs' edge he could see the billowing clouds of smoke and dust as the drill continue to move towards the great city of Ba Sing Se.

This was both good luck and bad luck. It was good luck because he would get to take it out. It was bad luck because he'd end up pissing off Reaper and her girl team. They weren't as well known as he was, but they were still well known for being assassins that left no one alive and no disguisable to allies. They brutalized all bodies, making it so no one could tell who they had killed.

_And we just happened to get to the drill before them, _he thought. _This isn't going to end well for sure. _He turned his attention towards Aang as he appeared overhead. He said, _"Aang… we've got a serious situation that I'm sure you're already aware of."_

Aang dropped down and gave him a strange glance and then nodded. "I saw the drill too," he said simply. "What is it?"

"_It's going to be used to tunnel through the walls of Ba Sing Se. I'll explain more on it when we get back to the others." _He nodded and ran off with Aang.

(-)

General Han couldn't believe how easy things were working. Things were just moving too easily for him. He couldn't say he was happy with how things were working out at the moment. He liked it better when things weren't going his way. It just made things easier for him.

The War Minister moved from side to side as he passed in front of Azula and her two friends. He too felt strange being able to order Azula around and tell her what to do. It was amazing in his mind that he had this power, but he still feared it.

"This drill is a feat of science ingenuity and raw destructive power," he said quickly. "Once it tunnels through the wall you'll be able to claim victory in the name of the Fire Lord."

"Good," General Han said quickly. Azula gave him a strange glance as the General a quick glance. "Tell our forces to be ready for anything. All guards are to be on high defense. This close to the wall I want all our forces ready for anything."

The War Minister nodded and gave the order to the others. When the orders were given Han looked around and stood up.

"I want you to get a message to the patrolling tanks and let them know to watch over all points. I won't have this mission be a failure." He walked around and tapped his finger to his chin for a moment. "I want you to watch over all entrances and exits." He turned and sat down in the main chair.

_Something still doesn't feel right, _he thought. He watched the men at their stations for a brief moment before shaking his head. _I'm forgetting something. I just know I'm forgetting something. _

"What about those muscly guys down there," Ty Lee asked.

The General shook his head mentally. That wasn't it. Something still felt wrong. He was sure it wasn't those Earthbenders. Those that were coming to face them were nothing to him. This thing could take anything they could throw at them. The metal shell was impervious to any Earthbender attacks.

He shook his head again and began chewing on his lower lip. _I'm still missing something, _he thought.

(-)

General Sung wasn't worried about the drill. He had hope. He, like all Earthbender and people of the Earth Kingdom, were enduring and could withstand anything so long as they had hope. They had hope. They had hope and faith in the wall that it would protect them from harm. No one, technically no one that is, had managed to penetrate the great wall. Of course back then the great General Iroh had led that siege which lasted for six-hundred days.

This would be nothing like that though. He had an elite platoon of Earthbenders in route to stop it. They were cold, ruthless, and efficient. They wouldn't fail him.

"Sir," one of his men appeared with a bald monk, a Waterbender female and a warrior, a blind little girl, and three familiar faces to him. He growled at their appearance as he walked out from behind his desk. "You've got a visitor. He says he's the Avatar."

Naruto stepped forward. "He is the Avatar."

"I know he is. I've gotten reports about him and his abilities. But his help, like yours, is not needed."

"Not needed," Aang repeated those words. They sounded strange to him at the moment. Didn't he notice that he had a giant drill on its way to tunnel through his walls or were they all just imagining it?

"Not needed," General Sung repeated. Naruto rolled his eyes. "And as for you, your help isn't needed either. I have the situation under control. To stop it, I've sent an elite platoon of Earthbenders called…"

"You're team will fail," Lyra announced sternly. General Sung gave her a hard glance and then shrugged it off. "That drill's shell is reinforced and made of condensed steal. You'll just be wasting all your energy on a frontal attack. You need to strike it from the inside where it's at its weakest."

"_Even that might not be a good idea," _Zentrai sent to her. She kept her gaze focused with the General as she listened to him. _"I'm picking up at least two or three battalions inside that thing. Even if we did get inside, that would be a complete suicide mission. It's no wonder the thing is still moving. Reaper probably never even got close to the thing." _He paused greatly for a moment and dropped into a meditating stance. _"I take it back. They never even got to it. None of the soldiers have been reported missing and nothing had stopped them from getting this far. She never made it."_

Naruto looked over the edge and down at the trenches that had been created by the Earthbenders. _Talk about cannon fodder, _he realized. "Sir, with respect, you have to pull your forces back. They're being led by General Han. He's practically Iroh's brother in terms of battle smarts from what we've seen him do. You have to pull your men back now. You're just wasting lives."

General Sung snorted at him and watched the fight through his telescope.

"_Arrogant prick isn't going to listen to us," _Zentrai sent to both parties. Aang gave the mute a silent nod. _"He's wasting his troops now. Things are about to end horribly. Ty Lee and Mai have been sent to deal with the men and will mop the floor with them unless we get down there. We have to stop them from dying." _

"_For once I agree," _Aang replied through the mental link. _"We'll need a big distraction in order to draw their focus."_

Zentrai sent this over to everyone and then Naruto said, _"I'll be the distraction. Azula and the others are not only after you, Aang, but me as well. They want me in their army. I'll be the distraction. I should be big enough. But we're only getting involved when things turn sour. But get into position. Zentrai, tell Toph and Katara to get ready. You will all have to stay up here so we can keep you all a secret for the time being." _

Zentrai sent out the reply, which caused some discomfort with Sokka. General Sung didn't even bat an eye as they moved over his wall and got into position. When things turned sour, and they did, Naruto was the first into the fray. He jumped and ran down the wall as fast as he could. Sure enough the Firebenders and other soldiers turned their attention directly to him, just as planned. Before anyone could do anything, Lyra, Zentrai, and Naruto jumped over the wall. Naruto ran straight down it while Zentrai and Lyra skidded down it

(-)

General Han saw them as soon as they jumped and his eyes widened. _The Bloody Inferno and Silent Death,_ he mused. Lyra was not on his concern list. Female Earthbenders were weaker than male Earthbenders. They were only had a stronger will in his eyes. _Those two belong to Azula and her little task force. I shouldn't bother with them. _He gave Azula a quick glance. She was gone. _Must have already gone off to fight him. _

"War Minister, have our troops prepare for an attack. If they get inside I want them dealt with. Orders or not, we have our orders to take Ba Sing Se and destroy anything that gets in our way. They are in our way and we must follow our orders to the letter." The War Minister gave a sharp nod and started giving out the orders.

"Sir," one of the men spoke up. General Han gave him a quick glance. "He's landed on the hull. He's moving towards us. Should we…"

"Azula can deal with him." He waved a hand and leaned forward in Azula's chair. He wanted to watch this. Seeing the blond in action would give him a better idea on his power. Reading about it was always a stupid idea. Seeing it with your own eyes allowed you to have a better grasp for the situation. He could work things easier by seeing it. He was one of the few Generals that liked to be hands-on with his soldiers. Why should they be risking their lives and fighting your battles if you weren't there to lead them?

(-)

Naruto wasn't sure if he had their attention. He wanted all of the troop's attention. He didn't want just Azula and a few watchful eyes. He wanted them all to watch him.

_Don't ignore me, _Naruto growled. He reeled back with one leg and brought it down on the hull of the metal beast. The thing shuddered, screeched, and a small dent was left in the bulkhead. Naruto gave it a quick glance and then smiled. _Kicked straight into the weak spot, _he noted. Still no one seemed to be paying attention. "Stop it." He grabbed two throwing knives. "Stop ignoring me!" He threw the first one and watched it sail straight through the window of the bridge. He couldn't tell if he killed someone.

Fire torched the metal shell at his side and he turned slightly. "Stop ignoring me," Azula screamed. Naruto turned his back to her again and then began moving forward again. She growled and threw more fireballs at him. _If only father didn't want him unharmed, _she growled. Still he ignored her and still she continued to try and get his attention. "Pay attention to me!" She aimed for his back.

The fireball consumed the teen and she gasped until a shadow overlapped her own. She turned and quickly grabbed by the throat. Naruto had gotten behind her. He pulled her close to his face as he said, "You know, Azula. You owe Rehka your life. Were it not for her, you'd be dead right now. We both know that." He threw her down at the ground and kicked her in the side. "But that was then. Now I'm just sparing you because I like those marks I gave you. They really make you look like a proper human again."

She spat at the hull and assumed her fighting stance.

Naruto scoffed at her. "Do you really think you can win in a fight against me?"

"Were it not for father's orders, I'd be burning you right now," she hissed. Naruto shook his head. "But am I still under Rehka's protection? Are you also not allowed to kill me?" To answer this Naruto blurred forward and shoved his fist into her stomach. She doubled over and gasped for air. She clawed at his arm as she fought to keep on her feet. _He hits harder than I would have thought, _she gasped. Blood splattered the ground at her feet and he pulled his fist back.

Without his fist to stable her she collapsed to her knees. One hand clutched the bruise that was to be on her stomach while the other hit the ground and kept her from falling onto the cold metal of the drill. She gasped hungrily for air but never seemed to get enough. She eventually rolled over and reflectively curled into a ball as the pain started to spread.

"Rehka isn't here to save you this time, Azula. If I wanted to, I'd end your suffered and just kill you. But the idea of killing you right now isn't very pleasing. You've lost it all, haven't you? You've lost your power over the armies of the Fire Nation. You've lost your throne. You've probably even lost your friends. With everything that you once had now crumbling away, why should I simply snuff you out when I can sit back and watch you suffer?"

"You're not the type of person to do that." She coughed out.

Naruto shook his head. "You don't know me at all, Azula. The things I've done… they'll never leave me now. I've done things I never thought I'd do. I killed innocent Fire Nation citizens because you took the land of the Earth Kingdom. I destroyed entire villages all because of the Fire Nation." He looked at the other throwing knife in his hand and looked at up the bridge. "I'm already dead. I'm just waiting for my special place in hell to be formed for me. That's where I'll go when I die. Not a hundred percent sure though, but I get the feeling that's where I'll end up."

He tossed the weapon into the air and caught it.

"I'm sure that you'll end up there though. You've done terrible things. You're cold, ruthless, evil, and you use people just so you can have the feeling of power. You wanted to kill Zuko and were ready to disobey my order when I fought Aang. And the worst thing is that Rehka wanted you spared. I think I know the real reason, but I just think I should have disobeyed her. I could have probably saved a thousand lives."

"What…" She coughed up blood and slowly began to get back to her feet. Her armor was cracked and she felt naked with it slowly breaking apart. "What are you getting at?" She finally got to her feet and glared at him. "Why are you here?"

"That's an old question I think everyone wants answered, Azula. Why are we here? Are we the product of some common coincidence? Is there really a higher power outside of the Spirits watching us? Why do we live and pray when the people we pray to do so little for us. If there is an almighty power out there, they are guilty of asking for much and offering very little in return." He looked at the knife in his hand and then up at the bridge. "For me, I'd rather hold the weapon and be free than at the mercy of an almighty power that would try and control me. That's not who I am!" He threw it and watched as the people began to scramble.

He smiled.

"This place will run with blood before the day is out. You should be thankful I like the new look. Because if I didn't like it, you'd be six feet under right now." Dozens of Firebenders appeared. He smiled. He raised both arms to his side like he was being blessed and smiled. "I will not allow you to do as you wish. I will protect Ba Sing Se with my life. I will die before I let it fall!"

Naruto moved with blinding speed and intercepted them in mid-step as they started Firebending. He was on them and the first one dropped from a thin blade to his jugular. There was a hiss and Naruto looked down. Part of the man was on fire.

_Explosive powder, _he realized. He shoved the man away and watched him explode. Bits of bone and meat with charred armor fragments splattered against Naruto. He was thankful for his distance between the two or he might have been torn apart by that. He stilled his breathing and looked at the others. They pulled out sticks of explosives. _Suicide fighters! That's new! _

They charged him, waving the explosives around like they were mad. The blond flung weapon after weapon at them, dropping them with each one he threw. But no matter how many he killed more kept coming to replace them. Azula stared at them in shock. She had never seen Firebenders Suicide groups. The only people that had ever done that were captured P. that they put on the front line and dressed up in Fire Nation soldier attire. They glued the explosives to them and tortured them to the point that they became completely insane.

She backed off and watched them as they charged the blond, explosives held in both hands. She looked for anything that could be a tell-tell sign that these weren't Firebenders. She spotted it. None of them had golden eyes like most Fire Nation soldiers had. The eyes were either blue or dark jade. They were captured P. . She smiled and moved back. She knew the blond wouldn't die here like this. He'd live, but he'd be tired and weak.

Naruto jumped back to put some distance between himself and the suicide bombers. The moment he touched down they were on him again. He punched and kicked his way to freedom and watched as they all blew up. Landing on the drill part of the machine, he walked along it and waited for some of the people to come running at him.

"_Naruto," _Zentrai shouted into his mind. The blond didn't flinch as he watched the men ran onto the drill and fall into it, their bodies pulled back and slowly being ground from the shadows from the shadows of the drills' inner workings. _"We've got a problem. There are suicide bombers here. They're everywhere. And they're not Fire Nation! These people are from the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom. They've been brutally tortured. Don't try to reason with them. Just put them down."_

"_What about the wounded soldiers? Did you get them out of here?"_

"_They've all been pulled back. We're making our way to the wall now."_

"_Right. I'm pulling out too. I'll cover your approach." _

Naruto felt Zentrai pull out of his mind and begin making his approach back to the wall. A dozen Earthbender stood at the wall in their trenches and were waiting for Zentrai and Lyra, along with a few other Earthbenders, to get back to them. Naruto gave Azula a sharp glance and then looked up at the General. He flicked another knife into his hand and chunked it as hard as he could. He saw it fly into the broken window of the bridge and then he jumped off the edge.

(-)

General Han stared down the teen as he flung the knife at him. He moved his head to the side and let it pass his head without flinching. It stuck into the metal hull with a loud thwack. He tilted his head back to normal and watched the teen jump off the edge. He scanned the wall for any sign of more surprises. He saw nothing. Earthbenders stood at the wall waiting for their wounded to arrive safely to their arms.

_I should have sent out three platoons to do what those girls couldn't, _he realized. His squads would have killed the Earthbenders, not just disabled them. He'd have to scold Azula for that when he got the chance. Though he was pained to know he'd have to do it and fearful of when Azula took the throne, supposing she still had a place on the throne. He really didn't want to think about it. For every action he used here it would reflect badly on him in the future. Screaming at Azula would only end badly for him in the future if she took the throne.

"Sir," one of them men spoke up. He hadn't turned his attention away from the two dead men. Naruto's first knife had shattered the window and torn into one of the men. The knife was still in his skull and his blood now pooling on the metal floor. The second knife had gone clean through one man's skull and clattered the floor. That man now lay in a pool of his own blood as well with half of his brain now spilled out onto the floor.

Han gave the man a quick glance.

"Should we remove the bodies now?"

"Yes," he ordered. Two men got up and removed the bodies and returned with rags to clean up the blood. He waved them away. They hastily moved back to their station. So long as he was here he would let that blood remain on the floor. It would serve as a reminder to what he had failed to do. _One life lost is too many. I shall not lose another. _"Ready our troops. They will try something new now. A frontal attack isn't going to work and they know it."

Explosions detonated across the hull of the drill and were felt and heard throughout the thing. Metal groaned and men at stations began ringing in. The War Minister looked around in a panic.

"What was that?" Han bellowed. His men began looking around for an answer. "Sit rep!"

"Four of the main pumps to control the left pushing columns have been damaged. Two of the pushing legs have been destroyed. Secondary explosions and fires are keeping us from getting to the damaged sections right now."

"Three targets just passed through here! They're female! They're escaping! Permission to peruse!"

"Denied! Get back to your station and await further orders." Han sat back and started stroking his chin. Something didn't add up here now. He looked back at the wall. "How long will this halt our progress?"

The War Minister did quick math to answer the question. "It will take us an extended twenty minutes to reach the wall now. We should arrive in less than an hour though. We can't push all the legs at the same time now. With fewer legs on one end we'll skewer off into a different direction and force the drill in sideways through the wall. It will continue to turn even as it tunnels through the wall. This thing isn't meant to do that. It will get stuck, tear its self apart, or continue going through the wall and damaging it, making us vulnerable to attacks."

Han closed his eyes. "Give the order to have all troops on high alert status. We can't let anything slip past us now. Fix the damages as quickly as you can. I don't care how you do it. I don't even care if we have to force the tanks to push them. I want that wall down in one hour. No more and no less." He looked back to the wall. It was taunting him now. He wished he had a telescope now. He could see who was on the wall better with it and know who he was up against. Naruto and Zentrai were two of them, with Lyra being the potential third.

He took a deep breath and cleared his mind. After a minute of thinking he growled. _Another squad of fighters has appeared. And they slipped through our defenses to set explosives. That can only mean they're assassins like Bloody Inferno and Silent Death. But who could they be? _

(-)

Naruto moved alongside the others as they marched towards the medical camp that was now setup on the wall. Katara was already at work on healing the men when he arrived with a few other guards. "How are they," he asked.

"They're chi is blocked," she answered. She pulled her water back and the man she was working on groaned and flexed his hand. "You should be better now. But you'll need to rest for a few days still." He nodded and she moved on to the next person. "We have to take out that drill. Any ideas?"

"Still working on that," Sokka announced.

Naruto was about to offer up an idea when one of the guards said, "General Sung, we have some people on the wall that are here to help." This got his attention greatly. Turning, he nearly screamed in fear as Reaper stood in front of him with her two female teammates looking just as scary as she always did. The guard also looked ready to piss his pants. He had a pretty good reason to.

Reaper was just like how her name suggested her: An aspect of death. She dressed in black tattered robes with a hood that barely covered the skull that had painted over her face. The only part of her skin that shown came from her face, the rest was covered by the cloak and the bone armor she wore under it. She stood only a hundred eighty-two centimeters in height and had an extremely small figure. The scary thing was the giant scythe she wore on her back. The handle alone was as long as she was tall with the blade being close to the same. She was every inch of scary that she made herself out to be. And with bone white hair and cold red eyes it didn't make her appearance any better.

To her left was a girl with dark black hair, golden eyes, dark skin, and wore dark red tattered robes with pieces of armor over her clothing. Like Reaper, every inch of her body was covered by clothing, masking her skin color, but unlike Reaper she didn't wear a mask. Her face was lined with scars and small burn marks. She had a belt made entirely out of explosives with extra long fusses. She stood just under Reaper by a few centimeters.

To Reaper's right was another girl that had short cut brown hair and wore brown and green robes that were set to be camouflaged style. Her right eye was covered by an eye-patch with the scar just barely visible under the bottom of it. She wore light padded over her chest, shoulders, and knees. With a strange blue eye that seemed to stare through you, and bow on her back with three sets of quivers on either side of her hip and another on her back, she was strange image that stood roughly a hundred and fifty-two centimeters. She was the smallest one in the group.

Naruto took a step towards them only for Reaper to pull her hood back, revealing the skull painting she wore. "It's been a while, Naruto," she said smoothly. She circled him while the blond kept his gaze locked on her weapon. She smiled and ran a hand over his chest and back as she continued her little dance around him. She finally stopped, one hand grasping the weapon she carried and the other running over his chest. She had her hand under his shirt. "Why are you taking my mission away from me?"

"You're late," he hissed through his teeth. Aang blinked at the sudden anger in Naruto's voice. "You were ordered to deal with this thing and yet you haven't dealt with it yet. We got here and it's nearly at the wall. Your orders were to take it down before it reached the wall. Why haven't you done it yet?"

She pretended to pout. "It was a long trip." She pulled her hand back and let go of the weapon. "I'll thank you for the help if you can agree to work with me on this just this once."

"What do you mean by that? Usually I'm the one asking for help when we run into one another." She waved a hand in front of his face. Naruto sighed while Lyra walked up to her. "Lyra, reason with her. Everyone knows that she doesn't respond well to men giving her orders."

"I'm a rebel like that," Reaper said to the side of Naruto. She made sure to look at the others that were on the wall with them. General Sung, the first person she noted, began fidgeting nervously. She grinned. "Can't stand to see a woman that can hold her own in battle, General Sung?" He turned away.

"Enough of that," Lyra snapped. Reaper stood a little straighter. "You wanna work with Naruto on this; you gotta listen to his orders. Sokka is working up a plan to take that thing down."

"We just tried," the girl with explosives said. She pulled out a small fuse and stuck it in her mouth. Aang had the mental image of Jet for a moment when he saw this. She chewed on the thing for a moment and then pulled it out. "I just tried to blow the thing apart and that failed horribly. I managed to take out a few of the pushers on it, but it's still coming this way. Unless you can get me more explosive powder, I'm not going to be able to blow the thing."

"Don't worry about it, Sparky." Reaper announced. She looked to the other girl and gave her a quick glance. She was looking out at the thing. "What do you see out there, Hawkeye?"

"Sparky? Hawkeye?" Sokka questioned in a whisper.

"_Code names," _Zentrai sent to him. Sokka gave the mute a strange glance. _"They're real names were given up years ago. For some it was better than others. Besides, the names mean what they're good at. Sparky works with explosives and Hawkeye has a really good eye since she uses a bow." _He nodded showing he understood and went back to Katara. The mute then turned his attention to the women and smiled. _"We still got the drill problem though. I can't think of anything."_

"It doesn't matter how many times we can hit the front of it, all attacks will just bounce off." Naruto took up a thinking stance and leaned against the wall.

"The Fire Nation cannot break through this wall," General Sung repeated. Naruto rolled his eyes. "That's why they call the city "Ba Sing Se" because it's the Impenetrable City. They don't call it Na Sing Se!" He started laughing and Naruto really wanted to hit him. "That means Penetrable City." He finished slowly.

"Yeah, thanks for the tour," Toph snapped. "But that doesn't fix the current situation you're faced with. That thing is still on its way. You're benders flopped big time. And not even Naruto could take it down. Even explosives failed!" She threw her arms in the air as she said this. "What can we do?"

Sparky shrugged and sat down. Hawkeye gave her a sharp glance and then looked back at the thing. "We could build a trench." Toph's eyes narrowed. Her voice was nothing short of a whisper. It was amazing that anyone even heard her with how low it was. "We need time more than anything."

"If time is what we need," Naruto whispered. Reaper cut him off by grabbing her weapon. "I wasn't thinking of doing that just yet."

"We could always storm the place again." She offered.

Naruto shook his head. "They'll have more people guarding every nook and cranny in that place now. If we wanted to get in, we'd have to create a really big distraction. And besides, we need to stop the thing. Not kill everyone inside first and then try and stop it. We'd fail because of you three. You'd just kill everyone and then try to get an answer out of the people inside the place."

"I've got it!" Sokka cried out. Naruto gave him a quick glance. "We'll take it down from the inside. A thing like that must have support structures that we can cut and force it to collapse in on itself." Naruto gave the three girls a quick look. They didn't seem to care about what they did so long as it was brought down. "But we will need a distraction. Can you guys conjure one up for us that will allow a few of us to slip in?"

"Does Naruto walk on water?" Reaper asked. Sokka nodded. She patted Hawkeye and motioned towards the bridge of the thing. "Can you hit them from here?"

"Yes."

She patted her shoulder again. "Good girl. Now let's show these bastards that women are the dominate sex!" Naruto shook his head and jumped over the edge. He'd never understand Reaper. She was just too crazy for her own good.

(-)

General Han watched tiny figures scale down the wall. Two of them were Earthbending a large piece of earth to get down to the ground. He lost sight of them and was forced to watch Naruto and two women land on his drill again. His men got ready to call out Azula and inform her that Naruto was back when Han stopped them with a silent wave. "Let's see what they're planning," he said quietly.

He was more worried about the team that was on the ground than he was Naruto and two little girls. One of them was armed with a large scythe while the other had no visible weapons.

_That one has to be a bender of some kind, _he thought. The girl without weapons waved up at them. _What are you up to? _An arrow flew through the broken window and slammed into the spot just above his head. He stared at it with narrowed eyes and then blinked. _It's on fire? _A small fuse was attached to the slightly larger metal arrow head. He blinked and then swore loudly. He jumped to the side as more arrows started to rain inside the thing.

Dull thumps echoed over his head and he could feel heat smoother his back. Screams of pain shot over the near deafening blast of fire and debris from the explosions. He could feel the metal fragments of the weapons and bridge bounce off his armor. He rolled over quickly and looked around. The War Minister was alive, which was amazing since he was on the ground and crying like a baby.

The inside of the thing wasn't even badly damaged. There were more burn marks than actually physical damage. The place was still in working order. They had failed to do whatever they were aiming to do. Even as he looked out the window he was curios at what their intentions were. Killing him and the others would do them no good unless they actually managed to stop the machine first.

He started looking around and it was then that he noticed his mistake. In front of the drill in the trenches were four hundred Earthbenders. They were moving earth and trying to carve a path towards them. He swore and quickly looked to his troops. They were on the wrong side of the drill to do any damage to them. And the soldiers that were up front were also dug in too deep for his troops to get to them. They'd bend the earth and make it impossible for them to get closer to them.

"Get the troops in position. I don't care how hard it is, work this drill as fast as it can go and get us to that wall in ten minutes. I want us in within thirty minutes, War Minister." He stood gob smacked at the order but complied. He reached over and grabbed one of the mics. "All troops are to prepare for attack! I need five platoons to head to the top of the drill and face the enemy. Do not fail me!" He shoved it away and stood up. He wouldn't be a General if he stayed here and out of harm. When he led his people to battle, he followed them as well.

"War Minister, you're in charge from this point on. But do not underline my orders. Get us to that wall in ten minutes and through it before thirty minutes." The nervous man nodded and hastily began giving orders to the crew. "And tell Azula to get out on the hull and capture or kill her target. He's in our way and I want him gone."

He moved toward the window and gasped when two figures flew up through it. They hit the ground, rolled, and sprang to their feet. It was Naruto and Reaper.

"Hi," Naruto shouted. He kicked the closest person in the face and elbowed another. Reaper slashed two men in half with her weapon and then they jumped out the window. Naruto grabbed her and flipped to correct their fall. He hit the hull hard, rolled, let go of her, and sprang to his feet. She did the same and they both looked up. _"Are you in yet?" _He asked mentally.

"_We're in," _Zentrai replied.

Their plan was simply. Cause enough chaos outside to lure out most of the fighting force to give Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Lyra, and Sparky a chance to cut through the braces on the inside of the thing. The goal was to simply cut through them and have it collapse in on itself. A simple mission that was easier now that they had help from a cooperative General Sung. He was willing to risk everything to stop the drill from reaching the wall and had sent down four hundred troops to aid in the distraction.

The only complication was Azula and her team. Naruto figured that she'd guess what was going on and start looking inside for an elite, but small, strike team. He guessed that they had about ten minutes to cut through as many braces as they could before they'd hit the wall.

"_Toph and Lyra stayed outside to try and give us more time. They're going to Earthbender rocks and try to hold it in place." _Zentrai informed him. Naruto groaned. Of course Toph wouldn't go inside the thing. She couldn't see in it or bend in there. She'd be helpless. And Lyra wouldn't leave a fellow fighter to fight on their own. She'd stay and help them no matter what anyone said.

"_Understood… Keep me posted." _Naruto felt Zentrai leave his mind and just in time. Two fireballs were flying straight for his face. He ducked and jumped to the side. Two platoons of Firebenders were now on the hull of the thing and they didn't look too pleased with the situation. "Here to die?" Naruto asked.

"I'll kill them," Reaper said happily.

She reached over and grabbed her cloak with one hand. She tugged on it and yanked it free. Seeing a skull mask, which was painted on her face to inspire fear in her enemies, was just one of the many reasons why Naruto feared this woman in general. Underneath her robes was an entire armor suit made from the bones of her enemies. He once thought she was a relative of Hidan from the images he'd seen of the man, but she just wore a suit of armor made from human bones. She didn't have it magically appear and disappear or make her immortal.

Throwing it away, she breathed deeply and gripped the weapon tightly.

"Ready to dance," she cooed.

The men assumed their fighting stance and she twirled towards them. Their momentary pause to her strange fighting style allowed her a quick set of kills over the men. She made the weapon dance in her arms as she danced with it. She was like a ballerina as she tiptoed across the hull of the machine, twirled, flipped, and kicked enemies with elegant kicks to their side of their head. She was always moving. She never stopped. She stopped only when all the men were dead and on the ground, her weapon and clothing covered in their blood and gore.

Naruto watched with an uneasy eye. She was smiling. That was never a good sign for any man that was in her way. She was very high-spirited in her belief that women were the dominate sex in the world. Naruto remembered arguing that point with her once and only once. She proved it by nearly beating him without having him use his power. In a way, she reminded him of that dancing girl on the pound by the waterfall with the way she danced.

She flicked her weapon and the blood splashed against the ground. "Who's next," she asked with ecstasy in her voice.

Naruto looked around. There were no more troops. "I think you killed then all," he observed. She smiled. "Don't let it go to your head. This thing is loaded with at least three battalions of enemy troopers. We'll be lucky to actually take them all out before they reach the wall and get through it supposing they fail to take the thing out from the inside." He whispered.

She nodded and waited for the next group of fools to cross them.

(-)

"So," Sokka drawled out. "What's your story?" He was speaking to Sparky as she set another trap for anyone that might try to scout out the place. She didn't want to get caught in the middle of her work. She was pretty caught up in it. "Fire Nation invade your village and try to lay waste to it until you turned rebel and joined their fighting force?"

"I'm full blood Fire Nation," she said quietly. She finished setting her make-shift trap. It was nothing more than a thin tripwire that when pulled would force the two rocks to make a spark and cause the fuse to light. It was so short that when it caught fire it would instantly explode. Her version of a quick and silent trap.

Sokka seemed surprised by her answer. "You're from the Fire Nation and yet you're fighting against them? Why?"

She dusted her hands off and looked at him. "Women that can fight and Firebend are usually forced to stay at the Fire Nation capital and serve as guards. They very rarely appear on the front line. I was a colonial that moved into a small village some time ago. My father was a new recruit that had spent most of his time in secure areas just being a guard. When he got orders to move out, our family went with him. We took a village, my father went insane. It was his first time in live combat and had killed three children, one girl and two boys. He ended up with posttraumatic stress disorder and tried to get out of the army. About that time, the Earthbenders came back to take their village. I was nine at the time."

She looked at Aang and smiled.

"The Earthbenders took back the village we took and tortured the survivors. I was among the survivors and used as a sex slave for two years before Fire Nation soldiers came back and took the village. We did what they did to us. During the battle I lost my two brothers, my mother, and my father. I was the only survivor of my family. I had very little Firebending basics, which is why I'm called Sparky as a cover name. That and the fact that I use explosives." She smiled.

"Anyways… When I was released I watched as our troops raped their women that had been captured and tortured the captured men that had taken up residence in the village. I didn't like what I saw because two weeks later the Earthbenders came back and took the village. Once more I was a sex slave for about four years and when the Fire Nation soldiers came back and took the village, they killed everyone that time. They own that village now and I left it. I wanted nothing to do with the Fire Nation after what I saw. I couldn't believe what we were doing. I thought we were trying to share our greatness with the world and they were just ignorant to what we offered. It was an amazing lie that believed."

"I'm sorry to hear all of that." Sokka put a hand on her shoulder and she smiled. "And after that you ran into Naruto?"

"I actually ran into Reaper. She saw that I was trying to blow up some Fire Nation crates in a village. She gave me a purpose. She told me to help her blow the whole place up and I did. After that I sort of just stuck with her. Hawkeye joined a few weeks later and we became a deadly fighting force. Though Naruto is still the most dangerous assassin I know of. The only one that's close to him is Zentrai. Naruto's only are second highest ranked assassin. Our leader, Rehka, now holds the title because she became our leader."

"We're done with this one," Aang shouted. "We need to get to the next one."

The two nodded and began heading towards the next brace. Sokka kept his gaze back on her trap as they ran and then looked ahead. "We don't have that many more braces to cut," he announced. "Zentrai, how much longer can Naruto and Reaper keep their attention?"

"_Not long," _he answered. Sokka swore. _"They're trying to lure out more of them by damaging the support structure that holds the bridge up. If they can take it down their General will be dead and be in complete disarray. We'll have a shot at truly stopping this thing."_

"What about Azula and the others?" Katara was winded from all the running and bending, but she still managed to keep up with them.

"_I'm unsure of where they are exactly. I can't see what they see right now because I can't focus on multiple things like this. I have to protect you guys by scanning for enemies ahead of us and in our general vicinity. I also have to keep in contact with Naruto which is getting harder and harder since we keep getting further and further away from him. She's in the area, but she's not on the right floor and she doesn't seem to know we're in here just yet. And given the fact that all the guards we've ran into were dispatched and dragged away, we should have enough time to do what we need to do without being caught." _

"Big talk for someone that likes attention from females," Sparky muttered. He just smiled. They turned the corner and ran towards the next one. "I'll set another trap." She turned and began working on another explosive trap. Sokka turned and watched her back. "You probably think I'm crazy for turning on the Fire Nation now when they're so close to victory, huh?"

"Not really. Joeng Jeong deserted the Fire Nation and he did it for reasons we don't know. He was even going to teach Aang Firebending but we had to leave. The area was being combed for Aang by Admiral Zhao." She winced and finished the trap. She turned back to the others and ran towards them. They were already about halfway through the thing. "Good job team Avatar. Now Aang just needs to…" A flash of blue fire caught his eye. "Duck!"

Blue fire streaked overhead and the group turned and looked up. Azula was on a higher support beam with Ty Lee and Mai at her side. "You were right, Azula! It is the Avatar." Ty Lee's hyper voice nearly drove Sparky into a rage. She hated hyper people. They reminded her of her brother. "And friends," Ty Lee added with a smile. She was eyeing Sokka.

"Hey," Sokka said while waving to her. Katara grabbed him and pulled away.

Before anyone could move, laughter entered their minds. Azula froze in fear with Ty Lee and Mai doing the same a moment later. _"Azula," _Zentrai whispered. She looked up and nearly freaked. _"I see you." _He was hanging from the ceiling upside down like Naruto would have and had a dozen blades floating at his side. _"It's a shame we're under orders to not kill you. But I suppose I can still beat you within an inch of your life." _

Ty Lee jumped towards Aang in an attempt to capture him and get away from Zentrai. Azula took off running with Mai nipping at her heels. Of course Zentrai turned his instant attention to Azula and hurled his weapons at her just as she and Mai ran through the door. His weapons clanged against the metal floor and spun wildly in the air before he pulled them back. Ty Lee crossed his field of vision and he made ready to launch the weapons when he read her mind.

_I don't wanna die fighting them, _she thought. _I don't even wanna fight them. Why can't Azula see that I'm not the fighting type? _

He pulled his weapons back and let her pass without incident.

(-)

"You think we got their attention?" Reaper asked casually.

Naruto gave her a flat look. Five dozen Firebenders had them surrounded and she had the nerve to ask such a stupid question. "Yeah… I'd say we got their attention." He mumbled. She scratched at her chin and looked to each of the men as Naruto said, "Do you idiots really wanna fight us when we've destroyed everything you've thrown at us?" The Firebenders gave them a blank stare. Naruto sighed as Reaper flicked her weapon.

"I hope you brought your money with you because the rent in hell get's paid in advance," she said happily. "Now don't let me interrupt all your fancy dying talk!" She swung her weapon and jumped right at the closest group of soldiers. She cleaved three in half and the men started attacking.

Naruto sighed and jumped straight into the fray. As always all the men went after the scythe wielding teen. Naruto couldn't blame them. Between him and her, the men would clearly see her as a more dangerous enemy. She had a giant scythe that cleaved people in half with one swing, and could do it to three people with one swing. Naruto was fast and strong, she was hard to hit and very quick on her feet. Not to mention she had a killer body while he was a guy and facing other guys.

With Reaper and Naruto working together they snapped and severed limbs, and left the hull as nothing but a blood stain for gore and blood that drained off the sides of the thing. By the time they had destroyed them all the drill had managed to bury the spinning hunk of metal deep within the wall of Ba Sing Se. And of course Aang showed up with Momo on his shoulder and stared down at the blood and gore on the hull.

The blond put himself between Reaper and Aang in case she went insane and just attacked him for no reason. "We'll cover you. Zentrai already filled us in on what the plan is. Just get it done. We got your back." Aang nodded and jumped over all the blood and organs that covered the hull. Naruto watched him for a moment before turning back to the sound of footsteps. Azula appeared and all the color drained from her face. "I've got her." Naruto said happily.

Reaper shrugged and jumped off the side of the thing. She slid down it and jumped again. She hit the ground and rolled to her feet. She was behind the enemy that was approaching the soldiers on the ground that had dug deep into the earth.

Naruto watched her go and then turned to face Azula.

He smiled and she walked out fully onto the hull of the metal beast. Naruto crossed his arms and said, "You really must be a masochist. You keep coming back to me for pain and suffering. I would have thought by now you'd have figured out that you can't beat me. I mean, I did hand you a perfect defeat at the stronghold when you captured Rehka and I left you for dead. And then I punched you with little to no strength and you lost all the air in your body and started coughing up blood. And you wanna come back and fight me because…?"

"I'm going to capture you. I have to. I have to capture you to get back my honor. Because of you my father thinks I'm a failure." She retorted.

Naruto eyed her for a moment before saying, "You really are an idiot. You can't take honor with you to the grave. So why do you wanna have honor if you'll just die without it?"

She narrowed her eyes on the teen as he turned to look at Aang. She watched as he cut into the metal hull of the drill. She personally didn't care about what happened to this thing. If the mission to use the drill to get inside Ba Sing Se fell, it wouldn't be on her shoulders. Yes she was here and it was part of her job to help take Ba Sing Se, but the blame would be put on the General's shoulders, not her own. So if fell, which she now figured would, she would get away without being forced to take the blame.

Naruto just smiled.

Before Azula could muster a defense Naruto was on her. He slammed a palm thrust into her gut and she doubled over on his arm. Fighting him was suicide. She finally realized that as she dropped to the ground holding her stomach. She rolled over and gasped for air. She needed her girls here to help her out. _I shouldn't have had them chase after the others, _she realized. Naruto grabbed her by her hair and yanked her up to his face.

"I can't kill you because of Rehka," Naruto informed her. She felt safe with that. "But that doesn't mean I can't beat you within an inch of your life." He reeled back with one fist and slammed it hard into her chest. The armor cracked and she felt fire burn inside her lungs. He dropped her and kicked her hard in the side. She rolled a few feet and then began to get back up. Naruto slowly stalked towards her. "You're the first person that's actually survived against my power and fought me twice. Most people don't even wanna fight me a second time, let alone survive. I'm known for being compassionate, but even I have my limits."

Azula threw a few fireballs at him. He sidestepped them and worked his way towards her. She growled and started fighting back with renewed vigor. Her attacks were easily dodged and she felt stronger than she ever had as he simply dodged them. His way of fighting her was annoying and making her anger, which gave her fuel for her attacks. Firebending came from rage and anger, and she now had lots of that.

Naruto waited and waited. Stalling for time was easy with her. Get her worked up and she lost all sense of herself. _Maybe I've done more harm than good to her, _he thought. He understood that Azula was usually in control of all situations she was in. He figured that if he wasn't here, she'd be fighting Aang at the moment and probably be coming close to kicking his ass. But he was here. And he had already done a number of things to her to make her angry with him.

Naruto had humiliated her in her own tank-train thing. He'd taken command over her during the operation to capture Aang. He ordered her around. He'd marked her and gave her the ultimate defeat that no one could replicate. He even tore into her with a few good blows and mocked her at every turn. She had a good reason to lose her self control. He had done what no one, or no man, had ever done to her: Controlled her.

The blond sighed and twisted under a new shot. He moved forward with liquid grace and grabbed her wrist with one hand. He forced it up and stared directly into her eyes. She looked angrier with him than actually scared as she looked into his perfectly calm blue eyes.

With a light twist he broke her wrist. She screamed and Naruto reached forward with his other hand and grabbed the front of her armor. With a sinister smile he tore it off and dropped it to the ground. She gasped to this and felt his hand move directly to her throat. He let go of her wrist and threw her into the air. She flailed around in the air and finally corrected her flight through the air. He was on her as soon as she was fixed and kicked her in the chest. It wasn't a strong kick, but it worked to knock her towards the ground.

She hissed and used her good arm to Firebend at him. Naruto formed a clone and pushed off it. It took the blast and exploded into a cloud of smoke. She gasped and looked for the blond. He was gone.

Azula turned and watched the ground come rushing up to her. She forced both arms to shot fire out to slow her decent down. She hit hard, but not as hard as she would have. She rolled with the motion. Her knees came up and busted into her two front teeth. She rolled again and collapsed onto the ground. She shook off the effects of her landing and got to her feet while holding her head. It was bleeding. She swore loudly and turned to look for the blond.

The ground rumbled and three Earthbenders appeared around her. She snorted and they attacked. She took them down with ease. With the three dead Earthbenders at her feet she went back to looking for the blond. She wanted him dead now. She didn't care about her father's orders.

(-)

Zentrai looked around with Lyra and Sparky. They were protected Toph, Katara, and Sokka as the two female benders worked at plugging up the drain. Lyra wasn't helping with this. She was too focused on trying to keep the Firebenders away from them with Sparky and Zentrai's aid. And of course Ty Lee was stuck in the damn thing now. Zentrai honestly felt bad for the girl. He really did. But he didn't have time to feel bad for her. He had other things on his mind. Like the twenty Firebenders that were approaching them from either side of the drill.

"I've got a present for you!" Sparky shouted. She threw a handful of explosives and watched them land at the men's feet. They exploded and they vanished. She cheered and dropped back into cover. Zentrai jumped over the edge and she threw some more explosives. "We've got them on the run!" She cheered.

Zentrai kept his thoughts to himself. The enemy was far from on the run at the moment. They were simply regrouping.

He used his weapons and power to drop dozens of soldiers at a time while Lyra worked on keeping the three teens well defended. Sparky could take care of herself.

Zentrai pulled back and watched as the drill started to lean to the side. Metal screamed as it was racked across broken pieces of metal. The support beams had been cut. Toph, already sensing it before the sound could reach them, shouted out, "Here it comes," as she stomped her feet and raised the earth. They let go of the slurry that was created by rock and water and rose above it.

The stuff spilled out like a rapid river and brought Ty Lee with it. She slammed into the large slump of earth that Toph had raised and grunted as the water pounded away on her back. Detonations sounded from within as the inside was filled with the running slurry that managed to set off the traps Sparky had left behind. The detonations, broken support bracings, and overpressure that had built up inside caused the thing to lose integrity and collapse in on itself.

It slumped down into the ground, threatened to roll over on its side, and left the wall with a large splatter on the wall that covered everyone and everything.

The advancing armies of the Fire Nation halted and ran. Zentrai picked up the orders given by their General. He was ordering them to return and call out for an immediate regroup. He passed the information along to the others. Naruto was well out of range but he must have known. Hawkeye and Reaper were also out of range, but he knew that they did know. How could they not know anyway? Naruto and Reaper had to be at the center of it.

Toph lowered the mound and looked down at the wounded little acrobat. Katara was about to attack when Zentrai put a hand on her shoulder. _"Leave her," _he said to them. He motioned for them to head out as Rai and Shibaru appeared. _"Get back to the wall. We'll take it from here. You may be fighters in this war, but I don't think you're ready to see what must be done now." _He tapped Sokka on the shoulder and then watched them leave with Sparky.

Lyra remained and looked down at Ty Lee and lowered herself down to her level in the muck. "Rehka told us about you," she said simply. Ty Lee began to sit up but failed. "Don't bother getting up. It won't do you any good now if you wanna get back into the fight. You'll die."

"I'll die if I don't fight." She said.

"True. But if you run you'll live longer."

"Azula will burn me!"

"_Are you that afraid of Azula that you can't see that she uses you through fear?" _Ty Lee looked away and an image of Naruto flashed in her mind. Zentrai shook his head. _"You don't even know him and yet you think of when you want to be stronger? Interesting. Naruto may not be aware of it, but he does still have him charm. He clearly charmed you." _She looked back at Zentrai and managed to get to her feet. _"What will you do now? Will stay, fight and die? Or will you be smart and run and live?"_

She shook her head. "I wanna know something first. His power, that… thing… what is it?" The two assassins looked at each and then to her. "Don't play dumb with me! Rehka said you knew about his secret! I wanna know what that thing is! Why is it…" She started rubbing her arm and shuddered. "Why does it haunt me in my sleep? Why does it have only hatred in it when Naruto has only kindness and act calm while he uses it?"

Lyra resisted the urge to hold her. _She's just like how I was when I learned about that thing, _she realized. Zentrai read her thoughts and said nothing to her. "It's not a Spirit." She said simply. Zentrai shook his head and dismissed her words.

"_No… it is a Spirit. But it's not a normal Spirit, Ty Lee. It's a Dark Spirit." _She blinked and looked up at the mute. She whispered those words. Dark Spirits weren't unheard of. They weren't well known, but there were documents on them. There were only a few documents on them and they were all hidden and kept locked deep within the cold earth. They belonged to no nation and no one dared to touch those documents. Some believed there weren't any documents on them.

Zentrai looked up as he sense Mai coming towards them. He pulled out the knife that he had won from Mai and threw it at Ty Lee's feet. _"Give that Lucy for me, will you?" _He turned and motioned for Lyra to follow when he froze. He couldn't sense Sparky anymore.

(-)

"The blade goes in the head," Reaper said happily as she drove the scythe's blade into the man's skull. It tore him in two and she smiled as his blood stained her clothing. She was so caught up in the fighting that she had forgotten just what she was fighting for. She looked around and then noticed the great wall of Ba Sing Se. She was still lost.

Reaper knew very little about her own desires outside of just killing people. It was so natural for her to simply kill people that when it came to protecting something she came up short. Everyone knew that she had a complete one-track mind. You couldn't get the women to protect anyone unless it was a female. Anything else that needed to be protected and you might as well just have it be a done by a Chattering Hog-Monkey.

So as she stared at the wall for two seconds, she finally shrugged and gave up on just why she was here. She knew she was here to stop the drill and the Fire Nation, but nothing after that. She looked around some more and found a wounded man resting under her feet.

_He looks pretty banged up, _she thought. She grabbed him by his throat and he started whimpering in her arms.

"What do you want me?" He cried.

"I wanna listen to the sounds of you going splat." She tossed him off the side of the drill and watched him scream and flail around in the air till he hit the ground. He hit and splattered onto the ground, fully jogging her memory back into play. _I'm here to protect the wall from falling. How could I forget that? _She looked back at the wall and then to the drill. Now her memory was completely back. _I came here to stop the drill and kill everyone inside. I think I've completed that already. _

She jumped off the side and slid down to the ground. She rolled and jumped to her feet. There were dozens of bodies on the ground and she looked around with blinking eyes before shrugging her shoulders. She moved through the tattered remains of the soldiers and locked eyes with something in the distance. There was a giant crater in the ground that had blacked the outer are of the crater and glassed the center of it.

When she moved closer to it, Zentrai and Lyra appeared. Zentrai approached her carefully and began looking around once he was center she wasn't going to attack. She found it first. Sparky's body lay just beyond the crater under a pile of earth and broken bodies. She had a single arrow stuck in her head. She had a smile on her face.

Lyra moved the earth off of their fallen comrade and Reaper picked her up. "She's dead," she whispered. Lyra noted how unemotional her voice sounded. She was still in her battle state where she had no emotions and felt nothing. The two older assassins were amazed she felt nothing at all considering that she had burns on the left side of her face and was bleeding from the side where a knife was stuck in her body.

_She doesn't feel pain at all, _Lyra remembered. "We don't have time to mourn for her, Reaper. We have to keep moving and fighting. She would have wanted that." Reaper nodded and sat the girl down as tears started to fall from her chin. She was crying but still unemotional. It would take an hour after the battle before she'd lose the edge. "We have to find their General and kill him. Once he's out of the way we can pick off the survivors. I doubt the enemy will be much of a threat once we've taken their leader down."

An explosion sounded in the distant and the sky turned red. _"Naruto," _Zentrai whispered into their minds. _"We need to get over there now. The Avatar and his friends are safe. They won't interfere. We can do what we were trained to do now." _

(-)

"Are you guys okay?" Naruto asked. He couldn't see Sokka's expression or anyone else's at the moment. He didn't care. His powers were active and he had to use them to protect them as suicide squads try to blow them up. That was how they got buried under the rubble of a piece of the drill. Aang had launched one up at the thing in the hopes of tearing the explosives from their hands but failed to realize that it wouldn't work. That was how the rubble came down them.

Shifting the large piece of metal off him and looked back at them, he was surprised to see them all just accepting his power at the moment rather than fear it. Sokka stepped forward with his weapon in hand and nodded. "Yeah we're fine. Thanks." He simply moved to his side and ran a hand over his face to clear the blood from his face. The blast had not only killed the man but knocked him to the ground and left him with a gash on the side of his head. "We have to get out here and fast. We can't stand up to this many troops no matter what we have on our side."

Naruto snorted. "You're forgetting you have a Rank 2 Assassin with you, Sokka. I can take these guys no problem. I just need you all out of the way. Can you do that for me?" Aang took a step towards them and readied his staff. "What are you doing? I need you out of here so I can protect you."

"I have to fight as well," Aang said. "I may not want to, but we can't let Ba Sing Se fall. We need their help. If it falls, the war will be over and all hope will be lost. We won't be able to mount a fully assault on the Fire Nation without the Earth King's support. That's why we're here." The blond looked back at the approaching army. "I'll fight. I have to fight. We have to fight."

Katara took a step forward with Toph and slid into fighting stances. The death of Sparky was still going through their minds. She sacrificed herself for them. Her death would not be in vain. They would fight for her and win the battle for her.

Naruto looked back at the approaching army and lowered his head. Rai appeared at his side and nudged him from the side. He smiled and nodded. "Then fight we shall. I'll clear a path and take most of them out. You guys do what you do best. Kill the enemy if you can, but stay alive. This war already has enough dead heroes. It doesn't need anymore."

The Fire Nation soldiers got in range and Naruto blurred towards them. Fireballs crisscrossed with slabs of earth shot by Toph and the Earthbending troops that were behind them and water slaps and air strikes from Aang and Katara. Sokka charged with the non benders and Naruto and clubbed the enemy in the head with his weapon. He never killed an enemy until today. He was so caught up in the moment of saving the Earth Kingdom that he put it out of his mind.

Naruto left only a path of destruction in his wake. Troops were left as broken bodies that were either torn in half by a single punch of kick or left dead with faces that was caved in from his fists. He tore through the enemy ranks quickly and efficiently. Nothing survived that he fought. With Rai at his side, the bodies dropped faster than they could be pulled out of the drill. For every ten enemies Naruto and Rai destroyed one soldier managed to come out of the drill.

Naruto shoved past all the troops and tore them all until he got to the ramp that had been lowered to let the enemy troops out. He tore them through all and worked his way inside. The Firebenders started fighting him inside the restricting tunnels. It was hard to move but the blond managed to get close and tear them apart. Rai helped by appearing behind the enemy and tearing them apart from behind.

Soon the hallway was left with an inch of blood and gore that Rai was hastily eating as fast as he could shovel down his gullet.

A minute later they were back outside and tearing into the enemy. Zentrai was now here with Shibaru, Lyra, and Reaper. Reaper was tearing into the army with joy. Zentrai had thrown all of his weapons he kept on his back into the air and let gravity pull them down into their targets. Lyra vanished into the earth and was sniffing out the leader with Zentrai to help her. Shibaru ran up to them and ordered Rai to follow her into battle.

Naruto jumped off the side and followed the two animals' charge.

(-)

Azula watched from the sidelines as the fighting intensified. _This battle is over. We lost. _She looked to the three lizard mounts that they had secured. The War Minister was gone, most likely already fleeing to let the Fire Lord know they had lost and the General had lost all sense of himself. Azula wouldn't stay to watch the armies fight till the death. There would be no point. She already calculated that they would lose the moment Naruto and Aang appeared. How could anyone stand up to them?

Ty Lee watched the battle though, even as Azula mounted her ride and began heading towards the forests for cover. Mai remained behind to watch it all go down. She moved her mount closer to hers and said, "You could leave and join him." Ty Lee shook her head. Mai leaned back and kicked her mount. Ty Lee followed and watched the battle continue to rage on.

Her eyes traced over everything until she saw it again. The red specter that haunted her in her dreams was back and it wasn't even paying attention to her. _A Dark Spirit, _she murmured. It was already rooting itself to the ground and lashing out at anything that got within its reach. It didn't kill them. No one knew it was there, but she could see it. It seemed happy to lash out at things even though it couldn't bring harm to them.

_Spirit or not, you are no normal and you are a part of Naruto. But what does that make Naruto? _She kicked her mount to speed it up and soon was at Azula's side. "What's the plan?"

Azula gave her a strange glance and then messaged her side as she said, "We need to find a Fire Nation controlled village and report what's happened. Ba Sing Se will not fall today. We'll let my father know that General Han failed and probably will fall here. After that, we rest and head back out. Naruto and Zentrai are in the city. We'll have to find a way inside and capture them that way."

"There's a Fire Nation controlled village just two days from here," Mai explained. "If we ride nonstop we can make it by morning or possibly noon. But our rides might die as a result." Her eyes turned cold as she looked at Azula. Azula said nothing to the suggestion but he kept ridding. _Is capturing them the only thing you want, Azula? You can't always win every battle. You're expecting too much of yourself and that will be your downfall. _

Ty Lee looked over her shoulder once more. The battle was over, or so she figured. The red specter was gone and she was left wondering just what had happened to General Han. She sort of liked him. He was like an older and much more powerful Azula. But he still had no control when things began to go downhill. Azula would have kept her cool and figured something out. General Han's battle experience was on the field, not as a General. He lost the moment he stepped foot on the battlefield.

(-)

The battle was over and the dead were piled up to be burned. Their corpses were scavenged first and their armor, what was left if actually, was taken and would be melted for building materials, weapons, and armor. Soldiers got to keep their money that they stole from them and whatever belongings they got. "Spoils of war," Hawkeye had said to them when they were back on the wall. Somehow that didn't sit well with the others aside from the other assassins.

"So what now?" Katara asked.

Hawkeye turned, her arms cradling the small form of Sparky as she said, "We'll be taking Sparky back to the village for a proper resting place. It's our duty to do so. We don't leave our fallen behind like others might. It's not proper."

"You're not going to stay and rest in Ba Sing Se?" Sokka asked.

"No," Reaper said. She was back to normal. The battle had been over for more than three hours and would be fine until another battle appeared that needed to be fought. "Our mission was to stop the drill, and we did that. Now we must return to the village and await further orders. We'll also be finding a replacement for Sparky." She brushed a hand over her face and shook her head. Aang turned away and sighed.

The total dead on the Earth Kingdom's side was eighty. Fire Nation total was in the thousands. Naruto had done what he was good at and saved everyone with their help. But to Aang it felt like a hollow victory because so many people died that he couldn't protect. He felt like a failure for failing to protect them. And he felt worse at seeing Sparky among the fallen.

Naruto put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and said, "You can cry over the fallen, Aang. It's only human. Crying for the fallen, even the enemy, still means you haven't lost your humanity. It means you're still human." He patted him and looked to the fallen teen. "But she will live on. She will never be forgotten."

"I couldn't save the people that died, though. I failed as the Avatar here. I'm going to make this up though."

"You already have," Reaper said sharply. "You're being here now means more than anything to these people. You have given them hope again when no one else could. Even the greatest of leaders and kings can only do so much. You are a beacon of hope for those that have none, Aang."

"But you lost a comrade. I could have saved her if I had only tried harder."

"Aang," Hawkeye said quietly. "Heroes never die. Yes, she is dead and there is nothing we can do to change that. But she died for what she believed in and she died protecting you. She believes in you and saw you as a hero to us. She is a hero now. You should honor that and see her as what she is now. She's a hero. And heroes never die. Their bodies may be broken and beaten, but their spirit, their resolve, will never die. She fought to the end and for that she will be remembered. Remember her valor, her bravery, and her strength to do what is right. So long as you all remember these things, she will never die. For she now lives in your hearts and soul."

The young Avatar smiled and gave a nod.

Naruto looked to Reaper and smiled. "It was good working with you again. I'd say we should do this again sometime, but you know I'm lying because you scare the shit out of me." She smiled. "But if you ever get in too deep, you know I'll be there."

"Is that my reward for saving your ass?" Naruto laughed. "I guess I'll give you a reward for helping me take down the drill." She grabbed him by his collar and kissed him full on the lips. Naruto broke the kiss and blinked his eyes. "You've gotten better since I raped you that one time."

"_You had sex with it?" _Zentrai asked. Naruto rolled his eyes. _"Well what's my reward?"_

"You get to live, but no guarantees." She snapped off quickly.

"_That's not a reward for me. That's a reward for all the fine young ladies in the world."_

"I'm a woman, and I don't feel very fortunate."

"_I said "Fine ladies". _He grumbled.

The two female assassins moved to the edge of the wall and had an Earthbender move them down to the earth bellow. Naruto turned and looked at the group. "She's right, even though she's insane. Sparky was Fire Nation and it took a great deal of courage for her to fight against her own people. She's spent years fighting them and has worked her way in our system until she was nearly at the top of the ranking system. You should honor what she's done and what she did for us all. She is a hero now." They all nodded and turned towards the General. Naruto gave the man a quick nod and he motioned for two of his guards to take point.

"These men will lead you to the train system. Thank you for what you've done for us." He bowed his head and watched them leave.

Zentrai smiled and sighed. _Now we just need to worry about the Dai Li, _he thought.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki

Chapter 14

Long Feng was a practical man that enjoyed fighting through political efforts and blackmail more than upfront. He was calm and assertive kind of man that could play hard ball and send it right back at you. Calm, composed and attentive, he was a deadly man that controlled too much of Ba Sing Se and in his own opinion not enough of it. Wrestling for more control of the city would possibly expose him. He was happy where he was at the moment anyway.

The Earth King was his puppet. Kuei had been under his protection ever since he came into power at the age of four. He began running the city at that point with Long Feng working to keep him safe and the news of the war reaching him. He had invested too much into keeping the information away from him to let it fall now. Treason would be the least of crimes. He already had the Dai Li working for him and anyone having a power greater than the Earth King that was loyal to him alone was one major crime.

But as scrolled over the reports of new refuges and the heroic efforts of the Avatar's little group and six assassins, two of which were on his watch list, he wasn't very thrilled.

"So the Bloody Inferno, Silent Death, and Demon Goddess have come to our fair city with the Avatar," he said out loud. He paced back and forth through the dimly lit chamber and stopped at a fireplace filled with burning green fire. "They've come searching for their missing Sky Bison as well. Interesting."

"Sir," one of the Dai Li agents that were posted at his door said. "Should we watch them?"

"No. Let's see if we can keep them from meeting with the Earth King. That's our number one priority. We also need to make sure that they don't mention the war to anyone inside the city as well." He closed his eyes and formulated a plan of action. "Joo Dee," he called out. The door opened and a women with green robes, her black hair done up with an elegant hair ornament, and a big smile on her face. Even in Long Feng's opinion it was too big. _I'll need to have them work on their smile a bit more, _he noted.

"You called for me?" She bowed and then sat down.

"The Avatar is arriving and I want you to keep them from meeting with the Earth King. The Bloody Inferno, Silent Death, and Demon Goddess are with him as well. You can't allow them to see the Earth King. Failure to do so will have dire consequences." Joo Dee nodded and rose from her spot on the ground. She left without a word, her smile remaining. As the door shut, Long Feng turned to his two guards and said, "I don't want you to keep an eye on them just yet. Continue your usual activities. If I need you to watch them I will have you do so."

The two agents nodded and left.

(-)

The two teams sat on the train that was heading for the center of Ba Sing Se. Naruto was resting against the side of the train on a part that he could stand. Zentrai was sitting next to Sokka while keeping his eyes closed. He was scanning for Appa at the moment. Lyra was sitting next to Toph. Both girls were actually talking about something that Naruto wasn't paying attention to. They were keeping their voices down just low enough that it was difficult to hear them. And Aang sat beside Katara with his face glued to the window and watching the land go passing by.

Katara was in the middle of rubbing her shoulder when she noticed the Inner Wall fast approaching. "Look! The inner wall! I can't believe we made it to Ba Sing Se in one piece," she whispered.

"Hey don't jinx it," Sokka shouted. "We could still be attacked by some giant exploding Fire Nation spoon! Or find out that the city has been submerged in an ocean of killer shrimp."

"You been hitting the Cactus Juice again," Toph asked with Momo in her hands.

"I'm just saying weird stuff happens to us." Sokka snapped.

Naruto snorted at the mention of the Cactus Juice and turned to Lyra. "How much money did we make from selling that stuff anyways?"

The one armed Earthbender chuckled as Zentrai got depressed again. They sold his juice after Sokka got plastered up a fourth time on the stuff. After that they sold it Sokka being the official person to sell it. He was clearly drunk or stoned on the stuff so selling it was easy. All it took was a single drop on some poor sap that was known for testing new drinks for them to sell it to a vender that wanted to know where to get more.

"Sixty-nine gold pieces," she answered.

"_How much," _Zentrai asked.

"Sixty-nine gold pieces."

"_I wasn't listening. What'd you say?"_

"Sixty-nine gold pieces."

"_I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Can you please speak up?"_

"Sixty-nine…" Lyra froze and glared at him. "You sick little bastard."

Sokka looked confused for a moment before shrugging it off. Naruto just chuckled. Lyra should have seen that coming. An odd amount to be sure, but still funny for a joke. He leaned forward slightly and looked down at Aang. He patted him on the shoulder. "We'll find Appa. Don't you worry. Zentrai has a system here, even in Ba Sing Se. There isn't a place they can hide him if they don't know how to cover their tracks and keep it from being visible to the world."

"It's such a big city," he whispered back.

"He's a giant Bison! Where could someone possibly hide him?" Sokka practically shouted.

They passed through a tunnel and exited out into broad daylight. The city came into view. Naruto could hardly see the edge of the Inner Wall on the other side of the place. Buildings were pushed as close to each other as they could, showing that the overpopulation was starting to take its toll on the city's outer areas. Naruto could easily spot the other walls that formed the three rings of the city, four if you include the one that kept the Earth King hidden. The once big and beautiful landscape that they had already passed over was replaced by this: a hunk of land turned into a domesticated area for refuges to live out their live in shoulder to shoulder homes.

"_Makes you wonder how the people stand living like this," _he sent to them. Aang nodded while the mute looked out the window. _"I'm not sensing anything. I'll have to check every place before I can get back to you. I have a few places that might speed up the process if I can get to them. We'll you guys be alright on your own?"_

"Where are you gonna go?" Toph asked. She was smiling at the idea of going with him. Anywhere he went, or Lyra for that matter, would be far more interesting than any place they would check out.

"He's going to head to a brothel," Lyra announced. Toph looked away with a clear look of annoyance on her face. Sokka perked up at that information for a moment before Katara shot all hope down with a glare. "It's not what you think. But we should head out on our own. Unless of course you'd rather go with Naruto somewhere, Toph?" Toph looked to the blond and then shrugged.

"I'd have no problem taking you anywhere you wanted to go inside the city, Toph. But my duty requires me to help Aang at the moment. If searching for Appa is his number one priority, then I too must help him find Appa." Naruto took a deep breath and turned to Aang. "I'll be in the city looking for him as well. We'll find you when we're through. Don't bother coming to us." The train stopped and they all filed out. "We'll find you guys and Appa as quickly as we can. Just be careful while we're gone."

"So I can't come?" Toph inquired. Naruto shrugged and looked to Aang.

"She can go if she wants. I don't care at the moment. Splitting up might help us find him sooner anyway."

"Then come with me, Toph. If you head out with Lyra or Zentrai you might end up getting stuck at a brothel for a while." The blind girl cheered and hastily ran to the older teens. Naruto waved to the others as they departed, Toph practically clinging to him as they walked down the steps with Rai nipping at their heels. "The first place we need to go to is a zoo or a pet shop. From there we can find the black market and work our way up."

"Okay," she cheered. Naruto noted how enthused she was and shook his head.

(-)

Zentrai's first stop was the brothel in the Outer Ring of Ba Sing Se, home to the artiest and small shop owners. It was practically the refuge area where they were forced to live until they did something interesting with their lives. Safe behind the walls they may be, but happy they clearly weren't. Zentrai felt bad for them to be forced to live here. But it was either this or submit to the Fire Nation. Sure they would be happy in the long run to just submit to their power and might, but they'd lose their culture, their lifestyle. They'd lose themselves practically and that wasn't what they wanted.

Lyra moved in with him and looked around for anyone she recognized. She didn't recognize anyone.

"Hello," a woman cried out. She ran up to the group and kissed Lyra fully on the lips. Lyra had a moment to panic and shriek before recognize the woman as Ayame. She pulled back, grabbed Zentrai, kissed him, and then looked at the two.

"_You're failing to remain scarce," _Zentrai sent to her. She smiled and grabbed his crotch. He winced. She, unlike most of the brothel girls that he'd grown accustom to spending time with, had claws. She had long, sharp, and dangers claws. If she was into bestiality or just had some desire to become an animal, she was heading down the right path with her claws. And there was also the fact that she knew just where his weapons were on his body.

Lyra slapped her hand away and grabbed her breast. "You're not much to look at," she noted. Ayame continued to smile and let the one armed bender message her breast for a moment. After a minute she pulled back and shook her head. "You won't do."

"But I have many hidden talents," she cooed. She wrapped her arms around Zentrai's neck and licked up to his ear. _"I know what you're here for." _She forced the thoughts to surface and Zentrai picked them up. _"Let's talk in my room." _She added. She grabbed his hand and began dragging him away. Lyra followed. She had no intentions of leaving him alone with this woman.

(-)

Naruto shifted through the doors and moved up to the counter where a shaggy man worked it. He was dressed in semi-decent clothing and his hair was at least done up in a long ponytail. He needed to shave and maybe a bath, but other than that, he was a perfectly normal person.

"Can I help you," he inquired.

Naruto moved directly to the counter with Toph staying beside Rai to make it seem as though he were her Seeing Eye pet. "I'm looking for a large animal," Naruto began. The man nodded and pulled out a small file. He began shifting through it as Naruto began giving a detailed explanation of Appa. "I'm looking for something that weighs anywhere in the neighborhood of ten tons, is covered with white fur with an arrow on its head, and has six legs. Have you seen anything like that?"

The man bit his lip as he continued searching. He closed his file and shook his head. "No. I'm afraid not. But what kind of animal is it? It sounds interesting."

"It's a Sky Bison." The man bit his tongue now and began looking at another file. Naruto watched him as the man tried to hide what he was doing. "Let me ask you another question then. What's the most expensive animal you have in here?"

The man gave him a curious glance and looked towards his birds. "Those birds are rare around here." He motioned to one of the cages. It housed large birds that looked like a fox mixed with a hawk. Fox face with a long and elegant bird body.

"Where's the Black Market?" He rose up with a startled expression. He opened his mouth and Naruto brought out his scary knife as Rai moved to a cage filled with rare birds. "I know that you know where it is. If you tell me I won't let my two friends here destroy this place. If you don't tell me…" Naruto gave Rai a quick look and then chuckled. "Well I don't think I need to say anything."

Rai began licking the cage and the man caved in. "It's on the otherside of the Outer Ring. You have to be a member to get in. Otherwise they won't let you in. You have to come with a person that has a membership."

"Do you have one?" The man shook his head. "Do you know someone who is?" He nodded. "Who?"

"My son. But please don't take him! There's another way in." Naruto folded his arms over his chest and waited for the man to explain. "There's an underground fighting arena that sits right next to the place. People who wanna get in that don't have a membership or someone to take them have to go through that method." Naruto pulled his knife out and turned to leave. "It's at the center of town. You'll have to find a man with a scar across his face that covers both eyes and passes over his nose!"

Naruto slammed the door shut and started walking. Toph stared at him for a moment and then smiled. "I don't think we would have gotten this lucky if we had a handler," she said.

"You guys will have a handler," he replied.

Toph winced. "I doubt they'll be used to it. It sucked when I still lived with my parents. They had a handler for me almost every day. I had no friends and no life. It was just a wall with a bunch of rules. Just like this place." She kicked a rock as they walked through the market.

They passed the rest of the way in silence until they found the man. It wasn't that hard to find him. He was the only man with an X shaped scar over his face and looked like the type to give you access to some nasty stuff.

Naruto approached him with a slow pace. He leaned against the wall he was on and looked the other direction. "Two to enter," he said. The man with the scar gave Toph a hard glance and then turned away. He knocked his heel against the wall and cracked his neck towards a fully lit alleyway. Naruto looked down it and then at the man's clothing. "Pull your pants up." He ordered as the two stepped into the alleyway. They walked two meters and then turned to face a wall.

The wall rumbled and then split open. A dark set of stairs greeted them and they walked down them.

Toph smiled. She could already hear what Naruto couldn't. A fight was already going down and she could barely make it out from where they were. The wall sheathed closed as soon as they got to the bottom steps and green crystal hummed to life.

Two big men with thick muscles and tiny heads stood at an iron gate. "Identification or fighters," one of them asked. Naruto wasn't sure which one but cracked his knuckles. They got the message and turned towards another set of doors. "Team?" Naruto nodded. "Two doors down that way. Can't miss it."

The two moved down the hallway and found a large chamber with water and bandages waiting for them. A single man stood in the center. He had bandages over his ankles that ran up to his calves to tape down the large white pants he wore. He was shirtless and covered with scars. He was small but well built. Toph whistled as a result and the man turned to look at them, his long black hair snapping around and flooding his eyes for a moment. He pushed it back and looked them over.

"I'm Blindside," he greeted. His voice was friendly and his smile was genuine. Naruto shook his hand when he offered it and stared directly into his eyes. "I'm not blind. I got the name from my fighting style." He explained. Toph cracked her knuckles and got ready for a fight. "Hold on, little girl. They do this in teams of three. I need a partner and they didn't want me out there until I had two. So I guess you'll be my partners for this."

"I guess so," Naruto admitted. "My name is Naruto and this is Toph. What kind of fighting style do you use?"

To answer this, Blindside reached over and grabbed a Sakabatō that he quickly sheathed at his side. He strapped a single arm guard on his left arm that sported the seal of at the tip of the guard on both ends. Reaching back into the box he retrieved a white robe shirt that was devoid of sleeves and cut off at the shoulders. He reached back down into the thing one last time and retrieved a simple white mask with only two slits for eyeholes that were closed to shield off the color of his odd olive colored eyes.

Naruto smirked as an image of Tobi appeared in his mind. He quickly shoved it away and looked the man over.

"I don't usually do this without a shirt," he explained as he grabbed the mask and tore it off. "But my chest piece and the rest of the armor I usually wear that gave me the name I have is currently damaged. I need to get it repaired. But I can still use my Earthbending to do some damage."

"How'd you get the name," Toph asked.

"Trade secret, Blind Bandit." Toph smirked. "I know who you are. It's hard to mistake you since I watched you fight twice and win. I was there when you battled The Boulder to take his title from him and again when you fought him to keep it. You're pretty good so I know you'll do me well. But you I know nothing about." He poked Naruto in the chest. "But if I'm right, you're the Red Destroyer." Toph's brow furrowed and Naruto chuckled. "I heard that you, the Demon Goddess, and the Blade God actually took a stronghold and killed three battalions worth of Fire Nation soldiers."

"That would be me." Toph's jaw dropped. "The Blade God and Demon Goddess are here as well, but they have other things to do. I felt like seeing what they have down here and she tagged along. She's a fan." The blind teen rolled her eyes. "She's just a little shy about it."

Toph punched him in the arm and he laughed. Blindside seemed convinced and turned towards the large wooden doors. He banged on it and a voice came from the otherside. "Are you ready now?"

"Yes. We're ready." The man took a step back and looked to the two for a moment. "No killing. Anyone who fights on my team doesn't kill. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Naruto replied. Toph just nodded.

(-)

Zentrai and Lyra moved out of the brothel in the Upper Ring and began heading for their home. Aang had passed by once with Joo Dee, a person that was clearly brainwashed as best he could tell, and knew where they lived for the time being. They moved in silence as they pondered on the information they'd gotten so far.

According to the girls, there had been a lot of unusual activity as of late with the Dai Li. Anyone who knew anything about Ba Sing Se and the Dai Li knew that they had to stay away from both the Dai Li and their leader Long Feng. Long Feng was a power hungry man that would probably stop after he conquered everything like the Fire Nation was trying to do. But his activities as of late had been strange. The Dai Li started popping up in places they normally never did. They were seen walking the streets in all three rings. And there had been reports of them kidnapping people for no reason.

None of this sat well with the two assassins. And the worst part was that they had no sightings on Appa and that Zentrai was picking up his thoughts or brainwave pattern. Shibaru confirmed that he wasn't even here either by trying to sniff him out. They knew that if he was here, Zentrai would have picked him up with all the walking around they'd done.

They approached the home, knocked, and entered when Aang answered the door. "Anything," the young Avatar asked.

Zentrai shook his head and collapsed on the floor. Katara noted that Toph wasn't with them, along with Naruto. Zentrai, however, answered before she could ask. _"She's with Naruto." _He cracked his back and pulled out a small scroll. He unrolled it and checked another place off. _"I scanned every place I could get to. He's not in the three main rings. He might be in the center ring where the King lives, but I can't be for certain until I check it out. I'll try to sneak by the guards and scan the place for his thoughts to get a clear read before confirming that he's not inside the city."_

Aang got depressed and Sokka was instantly at his side. "Cheer up, Aang. That probably means that they haven't gotten Appa here yet."

"Sokka's right," Lyra added. "He's a ten ton animal that's bound to be a little hard to handle without you at his side. If they wanted to move him quickly and safely, they'd have to keep him pacified. If he was awake and thrashing around, he'd be hard to handle. Doing it while he's asleep would be easy but still hard. So cheer up."

The last Airbender nodded and looked to Zentrai again. "Are there any other places you haven't checked yet that might hold him?"

"_We could try the black market," _he offered up.

"There isn't one in Ba Sing Se," Sokka quickly answered. Zentrai gave him a blank stare before the teen gave him a flat look. "You found one, didn't you?"

"_Naruto and Toph did. I know where they are because Ayame, one of our friendly spies here in Ba Sing Se, actually knows where it is. But there's a bit of a catch. In order to get in, you have to either have a membership with them or get a membership by either winning one of their daily tournaments or by having someone vouch for you. Naruto and Toph will probably enter the tournament to see if they can win a membership."_

"Great," Katara exclaimed loudly. "We should go make sure they don't bring the whole place down. Naruto is bad enough as is. He might kill everyone." She shrieked.

Lyra giggled. "You're not using your head right now, Katara. Naruto knows when to play it safe and take it easy. Besides, we have an inside man even in the underground fighting tournament. I put him there years ago when we were searching for information."

"Can you take us there?" Aang asked. He looked at the door and the two assassins gave it a quick nod. "It must be Joo Dee again."

"_I got this. Lyra, I'll need your help." _He stood up and walked to the door.

Lyra tore the door open and smiled at the happy looking Joo Dee. "Will you suck my friends' cock?" Joo Dee's smile didn't even crack. Zentrai turned and walked away nodding while Lyra began talking with Joo Dee. "What do you need?"

"I was just wondering where your other friends were? I haven't seen them and I was told to bring them home. Did they not ride the train with you?" Her smiled still remained.

"They were off searching for a brooding woman to knock up." Her smile still didn't fad or flinch. Lyra looked her over and then resorted to another tactic. She reached out and grabbed between her legs. Still, her smile remained. _That's too creepy and completely unnatural, _she realized. "I'll go and try to find them. But please, take that smile off your face before I break your jaw." She slammed the door shut and turned to the mute. "Verdict," she ordered.

"_Brainwashed," _he answered with a snort. _"But I've never seen one like that before. It seems like it's something she was forced to study and deal with for years before being shipped out to do this sort of job. So I could be wrong. I have no way of knowing a hundred percent though." _Aang came from his stupor and Zentrai answered what was on his mind before he could speak it. _"The woman has either been brainwashed or has simply heard everything anyone could possibly ever say or do to her. She didn't flinch or have a stray thought in her head, which she had none during the time, when Lyra began her assault on the woman. She's either really messed up in the head or brainwashed."_

"How do you do that?"

"_The human brain works in interesting ways. For instance, before you even speak you think about what you say, but you do it subconsciously, not on a conscious level. So when you asked your question, you thought it up first and I simply read it. It makes these things go a lot faster because most people, proper people anyway, think twice before they say anything."_

"Can you please stop reading my mind then? It feels uncomfortable when you do it."

"_You actually can't feel it just yet. Naruto's still getting it down for when I'm in his head and I've been with him for a while now. Lyra knows when I'm reading her thoughts and when I'm not because of how long we've been together as a team. But out of respect, I will try to keep from reading your thoughts. But what you ask is like me asking you to stop breathing. It's hard for me to do something I've done for years on a natural level. One doesn't just stop doing what they have always done for years."_

"I see your point." Aang glanced as Lyra. "So are we heading to this place or what?" She nodded and they all followed.

(-)

Naruto took a deep breath and sighed alongside Toph. Blindside was smiling from ear to ear. "Sorry about all this," he said with a heart filled laugh. "I thought they had the match ready. I guess they don't have it set up yet. Opps."

Naruto sighed again and plopped down on the couch. Toph leaned against the wall and then formed a chair to sit in. Blindside continued to laugh until a man approached them. He was dressed in formal robe and had an alluring aura about himself. He walked as though he owned the place. From the way he looked, walked, and even spoke, he probably did.

"Blindside," he greeted with a silky smooth voice. Naruto stared at the man now, half confused by the female voice he had. "These are your teammate?" He motioned to the two teens and the fighter nodded. "Good choices. I'll be watching you all perform outside in the booth boxes. Don't disappoint me now." He laughed and walked off.

When the door was shut, Naruto said, "I wanna disappoint him now."

Blindside shrugged. "He's my sponsor and he likes it when I win."

Toph gave the man a hard glance. "You got a sponsor? How? You don't seem like the type to want one let alone have one!"

"Working here has some perks." Blindside scratched at the back of his head and then turned to the blond teen. "So how'd you do it, Red? How'd you manage to take an enemy stronghold all by yourself?"

Naruto shifted slightly on the couch and then said, "I had some help." Toph scrutinized that part. His heart rate shot up a bit and then calmed down to normal level. "But that doesn't matter right now. I'm sure you know why I'm really here, Blindside." The man gave a slight nod. "Toph, this doesn't leave this room. Do you understand?"

"If you're gonna…"

"It's nothing like that, Toph Bei Fong." Blindside snapped off quickly. The doors slammed shut and Toph practically jumped. "What we're about to talk about is considered highly classified. If you speak about this, I will hunt you down and destroy you. Do you understand?" She nodded and raised her hand. He took a deep breath and removed the mask. "My father sends his regards on not being able to see you as of late, Uzumaki." His voice changed and no longer seemed happy and carefree.

"It's alright. We've been busy. But I think we should do some explaining for Toph so she doesn't get lost." The blond gave her a shy glance and she nodded. "Blindside is a spy that works for our sister organization. He works for us as well because he's one of many go-between people for our two groups. He's been here for years taking everything on Ba Sing Se in. He works for the Underground fighting tournaments and serves as the number one spy for his group."

Blindside coughed and leaned against the wall. "What Naruto is trying to say is that I'm here to evaluate Ba Sing Se's strength and weaknesses. Outside of General Sung, this place has more than just one flaw with it." He licked his lips and took a deep breath. "Full Moon Bay probably isn't fully aware of it yet, but they have brought in a few Fire Nation soldiers in the past. Guards from both the normal and advanced sections of the city have stopped them and killed them before they could cause harm to these people."

"Impenetrable City," she laughed. "Figures. So why did you bring us down here, Naruto? Are we here for information on the city's strengths or something?"

"No. We're here searching for Appa. A fight won't be avoided because we set it up so that we face three of our targets that are needed alive back for interrogation back at our village. When this is over, Blindside will vanish from the face of the world by dying, and take our targets to a rendezvous place for his and my organization to move them for interrogations."

"So we're about to fight three people that probably know you two are after them and get only information out of them?" She banged her head on the wall, leaving a fat dent as a result. "Why can't we just do it here? What's the point in it all?"

The crowd began to cheer. "We'll finish this later," Naruto informed her. He paused and smiled. "Zentrai and Lyra are here with Aang and the others. Drunkard is also in position. Looks like you guys will get to go home when this is over. Tell your old man I'll come by and see him as quickly as I can. I'd like him to look at my weapons again when he gets the chance."

Blindside nodded as Naruto brought his hands together and vanished in a puff of smoke. The smoke faded to reveal a slender woman with long brown hair, ample chest, revealing ninja clothing, and a blank white mask with two eyeholes that were slits. Naruto cracked his neck and began jumping in place to get a feel for his henge. When he was set he pulled out a golden Ninjato from the chest and sheathed it on the small of her hip.

"Let's just hope Drunkard's not drunk again. I'd hate to have him give my identity away again." Blindside whispered. Naruto nodded and brought a hand up to the left eye and dragged it down. "My heart bleeds for him too. Shame he's dying from alcohol poisoning. But he does have it coming. He drinks too much."

The ground parted and they rose to the bright green lights of the arena. Naruto took his spot by Blindside with Toph beside him in his female form. The two stood tall in the face of the three opponents they had to deal with.

(-)

Lyra did all the talking. There were no complaints about this either. They were able to get reasonable seats in the stands and some food to eat and drink. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't expensive either. For the most part they all seemed happy to be here since Aang noticed some Earthbenders practicing. Sure he couldn't learn anything from them without having them teach him directly, but it was still cool to watch.

"Hey," Aang whispered to the one armed teen. She cocked her head in his direction as he continued. "Do you think you could teach me some Earthbending as well? I mean you and Toph are pretty good and I'm sure if I learned from you as well it would speed up my process at mastering the elements."

She turned back to arena as a single Earthbender appeared. He was in the middle of removing the slabs of earth that covered the entrances to the arena so he could raise the fighters like they were heavenly beings. "No," she answered as the opponents appeared and looked at each other.

"Why not?"

Lyra sighed and raised one hand. "I'm a one handed Earthbender, Aang. Toph is blind and is teaching you the same way she learned. In other words, our styles would clash." He turned away as a result. He clearly hadn't thought about that. She continued. "My style is based around the fact that I have only one arm. I didn't have to do much retraining, but look at the differences between me and Toph. For starters, I'm a lot taller than Toph, meaning I don't have to use simple moves to do one thing. Toph does have to do this. Her style is based around her small height and body size. Her blows are quick and deadly. Mine are strong and slow."

"_Don't forget that she listens to the earth because how she _see's _with her eyes," _Zentrai sent to them. The mute leaned back and took a deep breath as he looked at the opposing fighters that would be fighting Naruto, Blindside, and Toph.

One of them was a small teen, probably eighteen that was just really short, with short cropped black hair, hazel eyes, and brown skin that was covered with white scars marking him as someone that had just recently healed up. He wore simple black pants and arm bracers. He was jumping around and annoying Toph. The other was a tall man that was nothing but muscle. Reading his mind was simple and he had no surface thoughts. He wore only blue and green shorts. The last one was an average man in all aspects that wore only a green robe.

"_This will be quick," _Zentrai said to them. Lyra nodded and leaned back. _"I've got twenty silver pieces on Blindside taking out Phenomena, the big guy!" _

"Not interested," the teens replied in unison. Zentrai laughed mentally and Sokka said, "So just why are we doing this?"

"_Blindside is a spy from our sister organization. He was sent here to evaluate Ba Sing Se's fighting and defensive strengths. When he learned that those three fighters were spies he was ordered to capture them. We arrived here to help you look for your Bison, Aang. In exchange for helping them grab these three guys, they'll hand over all the information on all the animals that have come through the black market. Naruto's two personal spies are here in the city, one of them being the one we went to see and the other playing as Blindside's manager. When this is over we're going to help them capture the men and they'll hand over the information we need."_

Aang nodded and turned back to the fight.

(-)

Blindside's manager, The King as he called himself, stood in the center of the arena. "Ladies and gentlemen," he screamed. His voice wasn't slurred. "Tonight's entertainment features two teams of three fighting each other!" The crowd erupted into a chorus of cheers. He raised a hand and they silenced themselves. "We are happy to feature Blindside, Devastator, and The Blind Bandit!" Again they erupted into cheers. "And they will be fighting The Crow, Phenomena, and The Rabid Beast! Now let the match begin!" He jumped out of the way.

Naruto, still in his female form, rushed The Crow, the man in green robes. He was on him so fast that by the time he had withdrew his arms to attack Naruto had already delivered a palm thrust into his chest. He coughed and flew backwards. He skipped along the ground, flipped when he bounced a third time and landed on his feet. His azure colored eyes landed on the teen and he slipped into his fighting stance. Naruto shook his head and appeared behind the man with lightning speed. His eyes widened and he whispered, "Red Death," just as Naruto slammed a fist into the base of his skull. He dropped cold and slammed down hard into the ground. The man was out cold.

Naruto quickly turned and found Blindside behind the large man with his sword already smacking into the back of his skull. He dropped hard and sheathed the weapon just as Toph captured the other man and brought two slabs of earth to knock him out.

_That was quicker than I thought it'd be, _Blindside thought as he scratched his head. Toph smiled to all of this as the crowd erupted into a cry of happy cheers. Drunkard was out and hastily having medics take the men away as he congratulated the winners while Blindside moved to his two teammates. "We need to let them get them to the secure zone and then make our move. Everything has been set up so we can do this."

Naruto relayed the information to Toph on what they were planning and as they were quickly whisked away from the audience they moved down to the lower levels where the sleeping men were being guarded by two guards.

Blindside moved up them and calmly explained the situation to them. Toph only half listened in on the conversation but she understood that they were on their pay or were members as well. They calmly stepped aside and then allowed them entrance. They quickly slipped inside and captured the three men by having Toph bend earth coffins over them.

"They'll be unconscious for the entire trip," Blindside explained. He ran a hand through his hair and cracked his neck. "We managed to slip some drugs to them before the fight and that's why they were so tired during it. We needed them captured because of how high value they are." Toph put her hands on her hip and gave the two a defiant look. Blindside picked up on it without turning to see her. "They're traitors to the Earth Kingdom. They've been selling secrets to the Fire Nation."

She gave the three coffins a hard glance and then said, "Why would they sell out the Earth Kingdom? Do they think that we'll lose this war?"

"People are losing faith and falling closer to despair," Naruto spoke softly. "The Fire Nation is winning this war and they're very close to ending it. The fact that they were able to get a drill this close to Ba Sing Se without problem is proof of that. It nearly burrowed through the wall and if we hadn't been here it would have surely gotten inside and Ba Sing Se would have fallen."

They loaded them up in a small cart and carried them away with Toph grumbling as she followed. They soon met up with Aang and the others and were forced to explain the situation. Ironically it was Sokka that understood everything, leaving Zentrai to explain it to the two teens that didn't. By the time they reached the exit the explanation was done and Aang and Katara still weren't happy. They followed them all the way to the end of the city and towards a small section of the wall that had two guards on it.

Blindside moved up and explained things to them and they hastily opened the wall for them. Getting outside, Blindside turned and said, "It was good to have your help, Naruto. Though I'm still certain I could have dealt with them on my own; I understand why you did it." Drunkard handed Naruto a stack of papers as Blindside continued. "That's the most update list on all imports that have come through the black market. It was updated this morning shortly before you got to me. I hope it has what you're looking for."

"As do I," the blond said quickly. He gave them a pat on the shoulder and looked to Drunkard as he returned to his normal clothing. He took a big swig of his drink, made a sour face, and then drank some more. Naruto snatched it up, sniffed it, and then looked away in repulse. "How can you drink something _this _strong?" He announced.

Drunkard took it back and took another swig. "It makes the pain go away," he growled.

"It only makes your pain worse." Drunkard shot Blindside a harsh glare and then took another drink as he started walking away. Naruto shook his head. "I'll look after him, Naruto. You have my word."

The two bowed to each other and left.

Naruto returned to the others and said, "Do we have a home so I can look at the list?"

Zentrai nodded and said, _"Yeah, but they've got a handler that could be brainwashed. I'm not too sure yet. I'd need a better amount of time with her to be sure." _The blond gave his friend a sharp glare. _"I don't wanna have sex with this woman either. Her smile is just too creepy for it to be reasonable or fun for me."_

The group dismissed what he said as they lead the teen towards their home.

(-)

Long Feng listened to the report given by one of his agents for the day. It was telling him about the new arrivals that came in through the hidden dock that was built under the wall in a small cave that was hollowed out by Earthbenders to take in the refuges. When the man got to the part about Naruto and Toph being in an underground fighting match and getting the paperwork to be members for the black market he started to get curious and a little worried.

"They're here looking for something," he whispered. The Dai Li agent nodded. "Have Joo Dee that was watching them come to me. I need to speak with her about this. I want to know how she lost sight of those two and the other two that are supposed to be with them." The man nodded and left him to his thought.

Once he was out of the room, Long Feng stood up and moved towards the fire. "Just what are you looking for, Avatar? Why do you have three high ranking assassins with you that have two strange animals that are known for eating your slain victims?" He pocked the green fire with a metal rod and then turned towards the door. "Whatever you're after you won't get it."

(-)

Naruto finished sifting through the paperwork and ran a hand over his face. He glanced to the side and looked out the window. The sun was barely visible beyond the wall and Naruto had sifted through all the reports with no sign of Appa. "Aang won't be too happy to know that," he whispered. He leaned backwards and ran a hand through his hair before scratching the back of his head. He stood up and walked towards the room with Lyra in it.

He stopped at the door and started to knock only to stop and turn away as Toph walked out with only a simple shirt on and white shorts and her hair a mess. She gave him a quick glance and then turned towards the list of paperwork. "You find anything on Appa?"

"No," he said sadly. He moved towards the stairs and sat down. Toph walked up to him and sat down next to him. "Aang won't happy to know that Appa isn't here, but that doesn't mean this was a waste of time. We came here to get Ba Sing Se's support in the war. But we still need a way to speak with the Earth King."

"Can't you just sneak in and put in a word for us?" Katara asked as she slipped into the main room. Naruto cracked his neck as he collapsed onto the floor while Toph just shrugged. Katara was fully dressed and cleaned up for the day unlike the other two. "Don't you think you should get cleaned up for the day?"

Naruto nodded and walked into the bathroom to get ready for the day while Toph remained.

Katara eyed her for a moment and then listened to the sound of Naruto getting the water warmed up for his bath. "Did he find anything on Appa?" Toph shook her head and the young Waterbender sighed. "At least we know he's not here yet. But that still leaves us with getting the Earth King's support for this war. We have a shot at the ending the war. Maybe if we let him in on what we know we can get him to join us."

"It's not like we have a lot of options," Sokka said as he entered. The two girls watched him crash down near a wall and kick his legs up onto it. When he was finally positioned he looked up at the two girls and eyed Toph strangely. "You should get dressed and cleaned up, Toph."

"Why does everyone giving me grief about this?"

The siblings shrugged and watched as a half naked Lyra came out with just her bottom half covered. Sokka's nose began to bleed and drain down into his left eye. He screamed and washed it out of his eye with a small glass of water. Lyra scratched her head and looked to Katara as she said, "Can you help me get my bra on. Naruto's taking a bath. Sokka's clearly a pervert. Toph isn't tall enough without having me on my knees. And Zentrai would make a comment about that and try to rape me."

Toph chuckled to that while Katara hastily shoved her back into her room to help her get around. As Katara helped Lyra get dressed, Toph jumped up and walked into the bathroom as Naruto walked out with a towel around his waist and another drying out his hair. "That was fast," she commented. Naruto rolled his eyes and she walked into the bathroom, changed the water out, warmed it up, and then jumped in. She was out a matter of minutes and by the time she was fully prepared for the day; everyone was up and in the main room.

"_Bad news," _Zentrai told them all through his mental connection. _"Naruto couldn't find anything in the reports on Appa. He's not here." _Aang deflated and Katara was quickly at his side. _"This doesn't mean things are bad for us. I did check the final ring and learned that Appa isn't there. The good news is that we beat the people that took him here probably. And even then, we still have Shibaru and Rai to track him."_

Aang looked at the two large beasts that were gnawing on something large and made of meat.

"But we need to focus on ending the war first and foremost," Naruto informed them. Aang nodded but kept his gaze on the two large animals. "And besides, we'll need to actually have a location where he once was so we can track him. In the desert there was no way we could track him because of the high winds. The scent would have been carried in a different direction. Tracking you guys in the beginning was easy because Appa was shedding and because you guys spent most of your time in the air after we started trying to help you. Following you then wasn't hard because we knew where you were going at the time."

"But you can track him if we can get lucky in finding a place he'd be, right?" Naruto nodded. "I can think of a few places he'd go to, but it will take some time for us to get there. It will be quicker for us to end the war and then start searching for him. But there is the off chance that those people that took him will bring him here, right?" Aang looked hopeful to that and Naruto again nodded.

Taking a large animal like Appa would require a lot of time and patience. They learned that it was the Beetle Merchants that took Appa and that they had knocked him out with special darts. The Sandbender wasn't sure what kind it was, but it was powerful enough to knock the beast out. Since they had learned this, Lyra had put out the words to their spies to start searching for the Beetle Merchants and discover where they took the bison.

"But we do need to figure out a way to get to the Earth King and speak with him about the war," Lyra reminded. Katara sighed and decided to get some fresh air as everyone continued thinking. Lyra was the only one to continue speaking. "We could just fight our way to him and then tell him about the solar eclipse. How about that?"

"I got it!" Katara screamed as she ran back in. "The King is holding a party for his pet bear tonight!"

"You mean…" Toph began.

"_It just a normal bear!" _Zentrai shouted. Everyone gave him a flat look. _"I read the thing's mind when I was in the area. Its name is Bosco and it's the King's pet bear. He treats it like we do Rai and Shibaru." _The quick rant from the mute caused Katara to snap from her stupor and throw the closes thing at him, that being a vase, and watched it smack into the back of his head. He reflectively curled into a ball and screamed, _"What the hell was that for?" _

"We told you to stop reading our minds! Can't you at least do that?"

He smiled and scratched the back of his head before Lyra simply snapped a piece of earth up into his backside and launched him into the ceiling. "Respect other's minds, Zentrai."

He crashed to the ground and Katara continued without interruption. "The palace will be packed. We can sneak in with the crowd."

"Won't work," Toph interjected.

"And why not."

"Well no offense to you simple country folk, but a real society crowd would spot you a mile away. You've got no manners." Toph crashed down on the small pillow she had been sitting on and started picking her nose.

"Excuse me? I've got no manners. You're not exactly lady fancy fingers."

"I learned proper society behavior and chose to leave it. You never learned anything. And frankly it's a little too late." The blind bender flicked her finger and her golden nugget flew onto the ceiling. Zentrai tracked it out of stupidity and watched it slowly begin to fall from the ceiling. It would most likely land on Sokka's head.

"But you learned it. You could teach it to us." Sokka bartered.

"No she couldn't," Lyra announced with some annoyance. The two males turned to face the one armed bender as she said, "You can't learn it because neither of you have the patience for it right now. If we had maybe a week or two weeks we could. But this party is tonight. We don't have time. We can get Katara since she might be lucky enough to pull this off. But you two would actually be lucky just to pass as bust boys."

Cut down before even getting a chance to feel fancy, Sokka decided to be snippy and ask, "But how are you guys gonna get Toph and Katara to look beautiful for this? I mean that takes time doesn't it? We certainly can't just go to a ladies day spa now and get this done. They're probably packed already."

"_I have that covered if we need something like that. But I know someone better that can help us." _Naruto shot his friend a strange glance before blinking. _"Ayame is in town and she's from a Royal Family. She works for Naruto as one of his spies and she's got all the proper manners needed for such an event. All we need is for her to come over here, help get them ready, and then teach Katara a few things before we send them out."_

"Ayame is here?" Naruto didn't like that sound of that. He had always tried to keep the two apart. The mute nodded and he scratched at the side of his head. "Okay, bring her here. Tell her what's going on and what we intend to do. Tell her that her payment can be whatever she wants from me. We need this more than my personal desires to remain pure until marriage." Zentrai and Lyra started laughing. "Shut up and get her over here."

(-)

Ayame came over a bit too quickly for Naruto's liking. But he understood that Zentrai had either promised her something or she saw the importance in all of this. He figured that it was the promise Zentrai made to her rather than the idea of ending the war. She had always been a bit strange, but she, even though she changed her name almost regularly, did have things she'd rather have done first than last. Ending the war was one of the things she didn't want to do because she'd have to go back to her old life and she didn't want that.

So as they waited for the girls to finish with their work, Naruto was forced to deal with Zentrai, Aang, and Sokka. Lyra was helping the girls get ready.

"So," Naruto began. Everyone gave him a strange glance. "Yeah I suck at trying to start a conversation in awkward situations."

"_Let's talk about the Kages again. That's always an interesting subject with you," _Zentrai offered up. Naruto groaned mentally and gave the mute a glare as he said, _"There was a Hokage, a Mizukage, a Tsuchikage, a Raikage, and a Kazekage." _Naruto counted down with his fingers. _"Was there ever a Jizzkage? How about a Spermkage? We know that there was a Hokage which was also probably a Whorekage." _

"Shut up."

"_Was there as Anuskage? How about a Peniskage?" _

"Zentrai, I'm warning you."

"_Was there a Tittykage? How about a Vaginakage?!"_

"Seriously! Shut the hell up!" Zentrai started laughing at the demise of Naruto's image of his fearless leader, Tsunade, being an actual whore. Naruto ran a hand over his face and then sighed while saying, "You haven't had sex in three day's I'm guessing?" The mute nodded and Naruto sighed.

Sex was, and actually is, a drug for Zentrai. If he did have his fix at least once every few days, he got just like this. It was hard to explain, but it really was a drug for him. If he didn't have his fix, he got crazy, started spouting off random stuff like this, and on occasion actually began fantasizing about it. It wasn't pretty when you were friends with him because of his speaking ability worked, but it was funny to watch him suffer.

The blond opened his mouth only for Ayame to scream, "Naruto, we need your help." The blond sighed and stood up before freezing. He checked the others and then looked to Ayame for an answer. Beautiful as ever and well armed with the facts on him and his team, she said, "Zentrai's not had sex in nearly four days and I have two teenagers, one of which is twelve and clearly underage, getting the full body treatment for this little party. Sokka is Katara's older brother, and I'm not one for incest of any kind. And Aang clearly has feelings for Katara. I really don't wanna watch two inexperienced teens try to have sex for their very first time when the fate of the world is riding on this."

Naruto stood up without a word and followed her. Zentrai had nothing to say. Sokka was left speechless while Aang was red in the face, not from embarrassment, but the idea of having sex with Katara. It was an amazing thought that when coupled with random positions and maneuvers that flooded his mind he got lost in his own fantasies, unaware that it was all cooked up by Zentrai.

(-)

Toph took a sick joy in feeling Katara's uneasiness with the current situation. Yes she was used to being properly groomed and well handled by professional handlers that knew how to make even the hardest female cases beautiful and feeling gorges, but those were usually women that were trained to do this, not guys.

Naruto stood behind Katara with one hand holding her long hair gently and the other having a special comb brush through her minor tangled locks. He wasn't forceful like she thought he'd be and he was very gently when it came to make minor adjustments. It was almost like he had done this before.

"Naruto," Ayame called out to him. She was putting on Toph's makeup and making minor touches here and there as she looked over her work like an artist would his own. She stuck her tongue out and held her brush up to check the tent that she was putting on her cheeks. "Can you please make some clones? I need them for some chores."

The blond followed the orders without question and made five clones. They looked around awkwardly and shifted from foot to foot as they tried to digest where they were. Honestly, they acted like they didn't have his memories and didn't know what was going on. _Maybe they really are people that have feelings and act independently without my orders? _

"Dummy Number 1," she called out without looking up. "Please come to my side and grab whatever I call on. I will be using you as an extra pair of arms because I must do this part quickly and effectively. We are short on time now."

The clones looked to one another before one of them spoke up with, "Who's Dummy Number 1?"

"You are. You spoke up first. Get over here, Dummy Number 1." The clone sighed and moved to her side. She continued to paint Toph's face as she said, "Dummy's Number 2 and 3, please transform into fully copies of Toph and Katara with vocals and everything you can see at the moment." Two clones looked to one another and then sighed. The two girls were near fully naked. Lyra forced the two to stand as Ayame pulled back and removed their robes for a brief moment. Katara screamed and Toph laughed.

Taking in their looks and body measurements was easy for them. It only took them a matter of seconds and two perfect nude copies of Toph and Katara stood.

"Dummy's Number 4 and 5, please fit the two clones with proper clothing that fits them in the proper way. I will not have these two girls look like slobs as they head out to this party." The two clones moved to a large wooden chest and began pulling out clothing for the two clones to be dressed in. It would fit the future owners to the letter. "You may put your robes back on." Katara happily slipped hers back on while Toph did the same, but at a slower rate.

Naruto went back to stroking her hair with the brush as Ayame finished putting the final details on Toph's makeup. Lyra finished combing and stylizing her hair for the event. Naruto did the same for Katara and helped her stand shortly after Ayame got her makeup on her. The two clones that were fully dressed in their clothes to make sure they fit the girls undressed and slowly began dressing the two with delicate precision.

"You know you're not half bad at this," Katara observed.

Naruto and his clones were too focused on their task to answer so Lyra answered for him. "Naruto's skills allow us a great range of missions. With his ability to make clones we can have a small strike force that is fully capable on its own and best when give individual tasks to accomplish. If you mix that with his Henge ability, we can actually take almost any mission so long as he's been trained to handle it. In this case, Naruto has been trained to be a beautician for when he needs it. He can work on girls better than guys and he can even apply makeup, give lessons on proper eating manners, behavior, and social interactions between two formal people."

"I would like to note that I hardly use any of those skills," Naruto cut in.

"That's why you'll never find a girl, Naruto." Ayame snipped her way into the conversation. "You are the ideal man. You're strong, handsome, charming, loyal, friendly, and you are a shield and sword." She paused to put the final touches on their clothing to make sure they were well suited into them. "You are a shield for those you wish to protect and a sword to slay your enemies that would bring them harm. You are the ideal man that every women wants, but can never have."

"I'll keep that in mind." She laughed as he stood up fully and dismissed his clones. "You're ready to sneak into the party. Go knock Sokka and Aang flat on their asses." The two girls pulled out fans and began walking in step. Toph gave her pointers as they got into the hallway. Naruto shook his head. "Long Feng will be at the party. I should kill him then."

"Killing him won't do this city any good," Lyra explained. "He may be a prick, but he's doing this city a favor with the way he runs it. He's keeping the people safe and secure as best he can with what he can control. He's brought homes to people that lost them in this war. He's brought people back together. He's even managed to give people hope that they are safe here."

"What he gave them was a false hope," Ayame cut in. The two assassins nodded.

Long Feng in a lot of ways was a godsend to these people. He gave them hope that they would be safe from the Fire Nation by allowing them to come within the walls of Ba Sing Se. This hope was false, just like the idea of something being an absolute defense. It just wasn't possible. But at the same time, Long Feng was manipulating the true ruler of the city by being the hand that guides him through his tasks while shielding him from the true world with another.

But giving them hope wasn't enough. People talked. Naruto knew that better than anyone. There was a decree that no one could speak about the war inside the city. It was considered illegal and anyone who spoke out about it vanished and came back totally changed. After hearing about Joo Dee, Naruto had no doubt that those that talked about the war were captured and brainwashed into slaves. He felt sorry for her, but she probably did something wrong and got caught.

The blond nodded and cracked his neck. "We should get ready to head out and support them," he said. He turned to Ayame and dispersed all but one of his clones. "My clone here will take you home or wherever you wish to go, Ayame. Thank you for your help. Now it's up to us to ensure they pull this off." The original cracked his back and moved out with Zentrai as they met up. Aang and Sokka had already left with Momo in tow.

(-)

Long Feng made sure to have all the guards aware that anyone without an invitation in, even if they told him that the person that held it was inside or anything like that. He just didn't want to risk someone coming in that could inform the King of the war. Though the idea of someone doing so was absurd, but surely the talk of the war had spread this far into the city. He had made sure to keep all refuges in one area, royalty or otherwise. He didn't want to risk his hold on the King with the war.

He breathed deeply and looked back to his three agents that were with him. They had their heads lowered and they're faces hidden behind the large hats they wore. "Continue to have the perimeter guarded. Stay out of sight and only get involved unless I give you a signal to. I will not have anyone break my hold over the Kuei." They nodded and slipped into the darkness of the building.

After they left he moved into the shadows as well. He stood there and spoke nicely to those that talked to him as they passed him by. He watched each of the people that walked in. If any of them seemed suspicious he'd speak with them personally and discover their intentions.

Then he saw it. Or rather he saw them. Two young girls walking side by side, their fans partially covering their faces and a ton of makeup on. They were young and matched the description of Katara of the Water Tribe and Toph Bei Fong. He swore in the back of his mind as he watched the little blind girl offer the guard a document that carried the golden seal of the flying boar, her family symbol. Anyone who was anyone would know that it was one of the wealthiest family's still outside the walls of Ba Sing Se.

The guard told her no and sent her and her friend on their way. He moved swiftly to their side and spoke with them. He made sure to be calm, carrying, and concerned for their wellbeing. He got them inside and began helping them search for their family. He knew that their family was nothing short of the Avatar, three assassins, and a warrior from the Southern Water Tribe. As soon as he was out of sight he moved into one of the shadows and said, "We have intruders. Get their Joo Dee over and have her make them leave. Tell her that if she fails she will be replaced."

There was no reply from the shadow. Long Feng knew his men were there and already on the task. If he was right they had already gone ahead and gotten her.

He started searching for the real threat. He needed to find the Avatar and the three assassins.

(-)

Naruto shifted slightly from the shadows of the chamber they were in. It was a large dining hall decorated with too many fancying things for his liking. Ayame would have had a ball here if she had wanted to come with them. But that wasn't her thing. She didn't like these sorts of events. They just never fit too well with her. They probably reminded her of her time as a royal member of the Earth Kingdom family on the outer colonies.

Naruto dismissed the thoughts and moved from shadow to shadow as he looked for Kuei. He knew what he looked like. Zentrai had sent him an image of him through the mental link so they could identify him when they saw him. Zentrai didn't make a move to speak with him though. He kept his distance from the King because of the fact he didn't need to scare him with his manner of speaking.

Wind was broken and Naruto hastily jumped to the side. There was a smack of earth on earth and Naruto narrowed his eyes on the shadows as he rose up. There was a soft grunt and the blond turned his attention to the side as two men appeared at his side. "Dai Li agents," Naruto said nonchalantly.

"Blazing Demon, you're to come with us. You're friends will be joining us soon." One of them spoke to him. Naruto looked over his shoulder and then back at the agent. "You can either come with us peacefully or by force. You're choice."

Naruto took a defiance stance and looked back at his comrades. He could easily see Lyra in the distance dealing with the agents as well. Zentrai was actually in the crowd and having fun with Aang and the others. He stood out like a sore thumb, but that was probably his point. He wanted attention. The blond watched his comrades for a moment and then turned to the agents.

"How much do you know about me?" One of them gulped. "I see you know quite a bit. Tell me something," Naruto strolled towards the closes one. He stood his ground and kept his gaze locked with his eyes. "Why would you try and provoke me into fighting you right here when you know I could destroy you without a thought in the world. I throw enemy lives away like you do your morals and sanity. You work for a corrupted man that is on a power trip. You look to him like he was a Spirit or something. You give him your undying loyalty. Not your King. That's treason."

"We do what we must to give these people a safe and secure place to live. If we are to be held for treason, it will be worth it to protect them from the war. Surely someone such as you could understand that. This world," the one that was speaking turned away for a moment. It was surely a flaw in his character design. "Is not nice or clean like we believe it to be when we were children. You of all people should understand that. Outside these walls is nothing but thieves that feed on the weak. That's what we're protecting these people from. Is that so wrong?"

Naruto kept his mouth shut for a moment and then turned his back to them. "You're a fool if you think that a few walls will keep people from seeing the way the world is. Even in here the strong, rich and powerful feed on the weak. Look at you and me for example. I'm strong and so are you. Those weaker than you fear you. It's simple. Do you understand?" The men nodded but kept their steely gaze with the teen. "I'll come quietly though. I see no reason to disturb your guests. After all, I'm not the real threat here. Aang is."

(-)

Zentrai was having the time of his life. It wasn't the fact that he was at a party where he didn't have to dress up to get close to a target and kill them. It wasn't the fact that he was looking for a girl to take home and bang for the night either. It was the fact that he was enjoying the knowledge of being able to sense when the attacks were coming from the Dai Li agents that were trying to capture him. He was making a mockery of them for fun and nothing else.

Every time they tried to capture him with a quick Earthbending maneuver they either ended up having to pull it back quickly or turn it to dust out of fear of hitting someone else.

Since Zentrai was a telepath he could actually read their surface thoughts just before they attacked. Cold, cunning, and evil they maybe. But even they still had to think things through. With so many people present the wrong move would send things down hill quickly for them. Being banished would be the least of their worries for harming an unarmed citizen that was completely innocent.

When Aang when zooming off the see the Earth King after he was discovered as the Avatar, Zentrai knew things would go downhill and simply started having fun. What better things to do then grope women without letting them be aware of it? Or sending dirty images into their minds so that they got horny as hell? It wasn't his fault he was doing this. He simply hadn't done it in so long that he felt he needed to have some fun. So fun was actually to blame for this in his mind.

"_Zentrai," _Naruto thought. Zentrai picked up his thoughts and smiled. _"Quit dicking around and come with us. We have to go. We're not needed here at the moment. And you stick out like a sore thumb. Besides, we're not wanted here anyways."_

"_Of course not," _he screamed into everyone's minds. Everyone, minus Long Feng and the Dai Li agents gave pause as he spoke in a loud and commanding voice through their minds. _"This is a lovely room of guests. Take care now. Bye-bye then!" _He started skipping away and popping his ass as he did.

Zentrai moved quickly to Naruto's side and soon found the others waiting for them in one of the large rooms with two Dai Li agents standing at their door. Aang gave them a wave as they entered and watched as the three assassins stiffened for a moment. Long Feng didn't miss it.

"Am I to assume I'm on your list as well," he asked simply. Naruto moved to Aang's side and put his hands behind his back. He slipped one into his shirt through the bottom and waited for any sign of an attack. The man behind the conspiracy grinned and sat back down on his small chair with his back to the green fire. "I am…"

"Long Feng," Lyra snapped. "Head of the Dai Li and Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se. We know all about you. Or rather, we do. They don't." She jabbed a thumb in the younger teen's direction and stood her ground with a glare. "You've got a lot of nerve doing what you're doing, Long Feng. You're lucky my two boys aren't tearing you apart right now. You are a wanted man. But that's only if word gets out about what you're doing." She laughed as though it were a playful subject.

Long Feng didn't find it funny and simply glared at her until Zentrai stepped in his path. He turned away and focused on the younger teens they were ordered to protect. Manipulating them would work better than trying to put fear into them. But as he looked into their eyes, he saw confusion and anger in Sokka's eyes as he blurted out, "Why won't you let us talk to the Earth King?! We have information that could defeat the Fire Nation!"

"The Earth King has no time to get involved with the political squabbles and the day to day minutia of military activities," Long Feng countered.

"This could be the most important thing he's ever heard," Aang informed him.

"What's most important to his royal majesty is maintaining the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se. All his duties relate to issuing decrees on such matters. It's my job to oversee the rest of the city. Including the military." He leaned forward.

"So the King is just a figurehead," Katara said.

"He's your puppet!" Toph yelled.

"Oh no… no! His majesty is an icon. A god to his people! He can't sully his hands with the hourly changes of an endless war!"

"But we found out about a solar eclipse that will leave the Fire Nation defenseless! You could lead an invasion…"

"Enough," Long Feng shouted. He stood up and gave a quick glance to Naruto as he caught the swift movement of his left hand. He had a weapon already and was trying to keep it concealed from view. "I don't want to hear your ridicules plan!"

"You're a fool then," Naruto announced. Long Feng snorted at him and the two guards raised their heads slightly. "If you try anything, I'll cut you down before you can blink." The blond warned. They lowered their heads and the blond turned back to Long Feng. "You wrong to assume you can control the Kuei." The man that controlled the Dai Li smirked. "You actually think you can control him forever don't you? You're older than him. What do you think will happen when you die or he dies? He has no children for you control. You have no wife or children either. How will you continue to control the city when you die?"

"Ba Sing Se is the last utopia on earth," the old man said quickly. Naruto rolled his eyes at that. Long Feng glared at him now. "You know of another?"

"Yes," he answered without hesitation. Toph's eyes narrowed. Naruto was angry and telling the truth. He did know of one. "There's a village that cannot be found that rests within the foot of a mountain. There are about two thousand people that live there. It's so secret that not even the highest ranking military men know of it here. Not even you know its location." Long Feng snorted at that. He'd find it now and crush it just for letting it exist.

Lyra stepped forward. "Changeling us is the wrong idea, Long Feng. You know that Naruto and Zentrai are, more than a match for you. I have yet to find anyone that can beat either of these two but each other. A fight with them only ends one way." She paused to let that sink in. "How strong is your military force? And by that I mean the Dai Li you have?"

"Twenty thousand," he answered without hesitation.

"_He's lying," _Zentrai sent to them.

Lyra rolled her eyes. "That still wouldn't be enough to stop Naruto." She gave her favorite blond a quick glance and flashed him a smile. "We're looking for a large Sky Bison. We already checked the black market with no luck. Do you have him?"

"No." He looked to the blond and then to Aang. "I have yet to see such an animal. But I do know that you are looking for it. It would be a shame if you couldn't complete your quest." Aang snorted and got ready to leave when Naruto grabbed him by his shoulder. "It is the strict policy of Ba Sing Se that the war not be mentioned within the walls. I'm sure you three are well aware of that." He smiled at the assassins.

"You can't keep this a secret from everyone! They have to know!" Katara informed him.

"I'll tell them! I'll make sure everyone knows." Aang shouted.

"Until now you've all been treated as our honored guests. But from this moment on you'll be watched by Dai Li agents. If you mention the war to anyone you will be expelled from the city." Long Feng returned to his fire as Naruto broke down laughing as he turned to leave. "You find something funny about all of this?" Naruto paused and nodded at the door. "Tell me then? What do you find funny about all of this."

The blond assassin turned and grabbed one of his throwing knives. He placed it on his finger tip and began to balance it. "For every Dai Li agent I find you'll have one less man in your army," he said simply. Long Feng's hand bunched into fists to this. There wasn't a thing he could do to Naruto. Keeping the Avatar in line and in fear of not finding his Bison was the only way to control the assassins. "And as for not mentioning the war; you'll need more than your current little army of troops to keep that from happening. Do you not realize the amount of people you have in the first wall to know that's impossible?"

Long Feng held his tongue. Arguing with the teen over such a thing would do him no good. Even he knew it was impossible for his agents to do something like that. It was liking asking an Earthbender to walk on water. They couldn't do such a thing.

"Joo Dee," he called out. The doors opened and a young woman with short black hair done up in a stylish design. She had a fake smile that was too creepy for any of the teens to accept. She wasn't their Joo Dee, but Naruto got the just of what this meant. "Please escort our guests back to their home."

"Understood," she replied with a curt bow. "This way please."

The teens all followed with Naruto and Zentrai grinning at the Dai Li agents that watched them leave. When the door was shut, they exhaled their held breaths and turned to face their leader. "Should we follow them to ensure they don't cause any problems, sir?"

Long Feng gave them a sharp glance. "Do you wanna die right now?" He turned back to the fire. "We'll need to find a new way to control those three. I've heard that it's not possible. But I highly doubt that. We simple need to find what they cherish most and hold it captive. I'm sure we can do that with ease." He grinned and poked the fire. The only person that could control them was Aang and Lyra. Capturing the Avatar would be easier. He smiled and poked the fire. _I'll have to go after the Avatar to keep them in line. _


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

A/N

This is a heads up for everyone. We're actually going to skip the episode Tales of Ba Sing Se because we have no need for it. Yeah it was a great episode, don't get me wrong, but we couldn't think of a way to actually use it or even truly create something for Naruto, Zentrai and Lyra without having it involve a battle of some kind. So we're skipping it. Sorry if you wanted it.

Chapter 15

Long Feng swore loudly as he finished reading the report given by his agents. _This is getting out of hand, _he grumbled. He couldn't believe how badly things were going for him ever since the arrival of the assassins and the Avatar.

In the last few weeks things had gone from bad to ugly. Their Sky Bison had come to the city, flying high over the walls. He had moved quickly and effectively to capture it by fooling the beast with a mock Bison Whistle. He lured it into his humble trap and simply captured it with ease. For a flying mythical creature that weighed nearly a ton or more, it wasn't very bright in his eyes. He easily fooled it, leaving him with the belief that if the Bison could be fooled, the teens could be fooled.

Capturing the Bison had proven to be stupid. Naruto and Zentrai had immediately appeared in the area and he was forced to move the Bison faster than he was nearly able. He hastily shoved the beast into a cell while it was unconscious and chained it to the ground. Using Earthbending he was able to bury the chains that bound the creature deep within the earth. He made sure it could hardly move as well. He knew it was strong, but how strong actually depended on how much it had to eat and drink. He limited its food intake and water intake so that it was near weakened at all times.

And as if one of them were psychic, they appeared at Lake Laogai not an hour after they got him there. Naruto, Zentrai, Lyra and their two pets had started sniffing around the edge of the lake for the beast. He was worried that they might find the actual entrance and thus had his men quickly seal up the original one and create an underground entrance that only they could find. This didn't stop the assassins from looking though. On numerous occasions they were on the entrance without knowing it.

And of course after that two of his agents vanished without a trace. There was no mistaking the fact that the assassins were involved, but he had no way of proving this yet. He needed to find his men before he could come to any conclusion.

He surveyed the scroll again and then rolled it up while reaching for another. It was a report on the latest people that had gone under his brainwashing procedure. Among the names was on that he knew of quite well. "Let's see what a former Freedom Fighter can do to end all of this."

(-)

Azula wasn't happy at the moment. The damage done to her arm was extensive. It had just now started to get better even after all the time she had spent with their best of healers. But even with the bone now properly back in place and her arm in a brace to keep it there, the pain hadn't gone away and she still felt like crap.

News of the defeat had reached the Fire Nation already and her father had quickly learned of her whereabouts. He sent a messenger hawk to her and gave her a new set of impossible orders while scratching the old ones. She was now to take down Ba Sing Se by any means necessary. The only good thing that actually came of that was that she could now kill Naruto and Zentrai. With the grand destruction of the drill and the dead in the thousands, her father finally seemed to realize that capturing them or persuading them was completely out of the question. He still wanted them, but he told her that if capturing them was out of the question she could kill them.

And the only other thing that had made the situation worse was that the village they had been in was suddenly attacked by Freedom Fighters and two lone fighters that were not part of their group. They appeared quickly and vanished after causing massive amounts of damage. They had been transporting three people when the attack began and then without warning the village was brought to its knees by them.

She and her two "friends" were forced to leave without even fighting the enemy. This wasn't acceptable to her, but Ty Lee and Mai had realized that they were at a loss in this situation. They didn't have the advantage here and were grossly outnumbered by fifteen to one. Those odds didn't sit well with anyone. No matter how one looked at it.

Now she was resting and sitting in front of the campfire with a sneer on her face. It would be four days before they reached the nearest Fire Nation controlled village and even then they probably wouldn't do anything for her.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. _I'm losing everything because of that man, _she thought. Her eyes glazed over as she watched the fire dance like Naruto's energy. She spat at it and the fire exploded into an inferno that died away into burning embers. She was left in the dark and alone.

(-)

"This world is dingy and gray," Ty Lee observed. She walked through the gray forest and shook her head at the dream she was having. It didn't make sense to her.

Ty Lee had now had this dream a grand total of five times. It was like a game with made up rules that changed about halfway through the game. She didn't understand it at all. One minute she was running from something and then that something would be running from her. She'd chase it down and then it would turn and chase her. Then she'd turn and run away from it in a different direction only to lose it and realize that it was now playing Hide and Seek with her.

_Why is my mind so messed up, _she wondered.

Now the thing was gone and she had no idea where it was. There was also the fact that the world now seemed to me all gray, which wasn't like her normal dreams. But it wasn't like she had been having normal dreams as of late. Ever since Naruto's first use of the energy he had her dreams had been less than ideal for her. And this one personally took the cake from all the other strange ones. For starters, not only was the grass and trees gray, but the sky was dark red and the cloud jet black with the moon being a mixture of both. Any life she found in the place was either that specter or some random animal that seemed to run from her or chase her.

"At least this beats the other one I was having," she said out loud.

She continued walking through the forest before coming upon the small creature. It was a strange animal if she had ever seen one. It sported red fur mixed with patches of white on its chest and at its paws that waved around like a flame. It was about the size of a volley ball and was completely cute with its large and innocent red eyes that pressed against the black sclera it had. Two long ears and one very large and puffy tail made up the rest of it.

It sat there just waiting for her. She inched towards it and knelt down towards it. When she reached to touch it, it backed up and sat back down blinking its eyes.

"There's nothing to be afraid of. I won't harm…" She froze and then spun around. The giant red specter was there and staring down on her with hungry teeth just waiting to tear into her. She stood, took a few steps back and then strengthened her resolve to fight it. She knew it couldn't hurt her. This was her mind. "What are you?" No reply. "Why are you in my mind?" No reply. She growled at it. "What are you?!"

Her eyes shut and she felt the rush of wind slam into her back. She fell to her knees and then looked up. Naruto with his power active stood before her. Her eyes widened as the specter looked down at her and then lunged to eat her.

(-)

Ty Lee shot straight up in her bed holding her chest as sweat poured off her flesh. She ran a hand over her face to smear it away and then looked towards the center of the camp. The fire was out but Azula was still sitting before it. She huffed and went back to bed. _Why am I still following her, _she wondered before dozing off.

(-)

"Are you gonna talk now?" Naruto asked nicely.

Before him sat a blood soaked man with all of his fingers bent backwards with his bones jetting out of his flesh. He had a few days of growth on his chin, showing he'd been captive for a couple of days or even a week. His hair was greasy now, further adding to the fact that he had been captive for a long time. And to top it all off, he stripped down to just his boxers. He was one of the two Dai Li agents that had gone missing and he was in very bad shape.

Naruto wasn't pleased with him at all though. The man was stone cold unreadable. After watching them torture his buddy for three days straight without rest and then watching them kill him did nothing to shake his resolve in what he was doing. He didn't spout off about order or anything. He just sat in the chair like a drone. Zentrai believed that he was brainwashed but there was no way to be sure. But even with all of the damage he'd gone through and traumatic things he witnessed he was still quiet as ever.

Naruto's resolve with the man was running thin now. He was certain he knew something. He grabbed the side of his head and yanked up just enough that his skin stretched around his throat. "Don't play stupid games with me, moron! I'm well aware of the fact that you have the Bison in the city or at the lake. Zentrai actually sensed his thoughts and Rai and Shibaru followed his scent to a spot in the city where his foot print was. So either you start talking, or I'll go and find a different person to talk with. You're choice."

"You think they will talk," he said quietly. Blood bubbled around his mouth and nose as he started speaking. "You think that everyone will bend to your will simply because you break our bones, kill our comrades, or even pull our limbs off. But you're wrong. I am among the few that have truly lost everything. There is nothing you can take from me that I already haven't lost." He turned back to the blood smear of where his comrade had once been. "Do your worse. I shall not talk."

Naruto stared at the man for a long time. Naruto could understand where he was coming from. He saw his resolve in his eyes. They were dead eyes that still looked halfway alive. It was sort of like when he cut the head of an enemy off that had yet to fully grasp their own death. His eyes shown with that. He was dead inside. He had been broken, beaten, lost loved ones and friends. He probably saw no meaning in life other than to fight and even then he hated that too.

Killing him would bring him peace, Naruto knew that. But doing so without getting information would be a pain in his ass at the moment. He settled for killing him. He made it quick and to the point. When he died and snapped his fingers and Rai moved fast to devour the tasty morsel that was the Dai Li agent.

Naruto walked out of the room he was in and shut the door just barely so Rai could get out. He leaned against the wall and sighed. _I need a drink of some kind. Maybe I should pick up Drunkard's habit? _He thought about that for a moment and then shook his head while chuckling. "Lyra and Rehka would kick my ass and I would actually take it."

He turned and started walking down the corridor. The place they had used was one that Lyra had built within the underground fighting arena shortly after they started searching for Appa. Naruto had made sure to not let the teens know that they knew Appa was inside the city. It would cause Aang to go insane and just start looking for him. The only safe option was for them to start their own little search to understand just where Appa was before they made their move and told Aang about it.

He stopped short of the corridor that moved out into the open and ended at the arena. He looked down the hallway and then stepped down into its darkened sections with a smile.

He remembered it well. It wasn't too long ago he had checked the inner workings of his mind. Explaining that made him once think he was like that machine version of Pain. He didn't understand it at the time, but with Zentrai's help he understood that the mind was, in a way, just like that thing he fought: A bunch of working devices that sent messages to every part of the body. That's what the human brain was.

But he remembered walking down the darkened tunnels of his mindscape where he once kept the Kyuubi at bay and spoke with. It was hard to believe that it was gone, but the cage that it was once resided in was open and it was not in him. There was nothing left but a hunk of red crystal that seemed to float inside the opened cell serving as an imprint of what he once was. Naruto knew that it was just a fragment of the Kyuubi's power that he saw in that crystal, but it scared him when he thought about at night.

_If you had come with me to this place, _he shuddered and stopped in an area where he could see only the faintest of lights at either of end of the tunnel. He hung his head and then ran a hand over his face. "Keeping Aang in the dark is like keeping the secret of the Kyuubi all over again," he whispered. Naruto messaged the side of his head and then cracked his neck. Ty Lee sprang in his mind and he leaned against the wall. _Why are you so interested in me? Is it because you can see the Kyuubi's image as well when I use that power? If so, why do you wish to know more about something that you could probably never comprehend or accept? _

He pushed off the wall and started walking. He wasn't sure if he was heading towards the arena or towards the chamber where Rai was. He personally didn't care. He wanted out of the darkness. That was all he ever wanted. He soon exited and found that he had ended up at the arena. It was dead. No one was here.

He smiled and moved down to the arena. Stepping into the center of it, he closed his eyes and focused on a simple thing: Meditating in his own way.

He slid into his fighting stance and took a calming breath. He then began going through a serious of palm thrusts, elbow blows, mid and high kicks, and then finished by slamming his foot into the arena floor. His foot was buried deep within the rocky floor, but he paid it no mind. He was meditating. He went through the same process again as he tried to clear his mind. He needed it cleared. He had too many things on his mind.

_I'm overtaxing myself with protecting Aang and his friends and trying to find his lost pet, _he thought. He slammed his foot down, turned to the side and struck an imaginary target. It toppled over and died just like how Gen Fu had taught him to imagine. _You don't imagine that the enemy you're fighting is human. You just know they are the enemy and that you must kill them before they can kill you. _He wondered how many times he had thought about that now before focusing on another set of thoughts.

Appa was in the city. He knew that. Lyra and Zentrai knew it. While he was busy with the interrogation, Zentrai was off searching for Appa while Lyra was keeping the teens busy with the everyday details of training or simple shopping. He still couldn't believe that she had gone with Katara and Toph to a beauty spa for a day. Lyra had always hated those sorts of things. You had a better chance of getting close to her with a long and rusty blade than you did a brush with makeup on the end of it at time.

He shook his head and stopped as he took a small breather. He was far from winded but his eyes had narrowed into slits as he started shifting through his mind for what he needed. He stopped, looked up and then closed his eyes. He inhaled and exhaled as he went over their last chance at finding Appa before capturing the men. Appa was in the city and was still hear. Zentrai couldn't feel him anymore, but Shibaru and Rai continued to tell them he was here.

_Long Feng can't move him that quickly, _he thought. He chewed on his lower lip. A bit of bleed spilled out. He ignored it and inhaled through his nose. The smell of his blood wavered into his nostrils for a bit until he licked it off his lips and sat down while scratching at the side of his head. "They could have moved him somewhere by now. But I highly doubt he'd move him outside of the city without alerting us. Underground passages maybe, but that would be hard with Appa. They'd have to keep him drugged and unconscious. He hates tunnels."

"Yes he does." Naruto turned slowly to see Lyra moving up to the arena. She was smiling. He smiled back at her. She stepped around him and kept her gaze locked on something either beyond him or on him. "It doesn't seem so long ago that you were fighting like that against imaginary targets with Gen Fu," she commented. Naruto nodded. She looked away. "He had nothing for us?"

"He was never going to talk. He was already a broken man. All we were doing was breaking him even more. I killed him. It was merciful." He looked towards the ceiling and sighed. "The others are already beginning their own search. They aren't aware of it, but they are tired of waiting for a chance to find Appa. They've already started putting up posters and have already begun getting into trouble. Joo Dee even appeared to try and stop them."

"The old Joo Dee I'm guessing?" She nodded and the blond groaned while crashing back against the floor of the arena. "We're losing our touch as a team. When we mastered our teamwork we never said anything to the other because we understood without words being spoken. We never really relied on Zentrai to pass messages unless we had no other choice. We're losing our edge."

She giggled and helped him stand back up. "But we're getting it back. How long has it been since we last worked together anyways?" Naruto shrugged and cracked his back. "Capture another agent?" Naruto shook his head. "Right to the source then?" He shook his head again and her eyes narrowed slightly. Her scar crinkled and she massaged it lightly for a moment.

"We're heading back to the lake to figure this out now. We've wasted enough time with these shadow games. Now we're just going to take it right to the last place we detected Appa. From there we'll plan our next set of moves. And we'll figure out if we need to tell Aang then or not."

She nodded and began moving towards the exit with Naruto in tow. They moved outside where Zentrai was waiting for them. _"Got some good news," _Zentrai sent to them. Naruto wondered for a moment on what his "Good News" was since he still had yet to have any sex. _"Jet, Smellerbee, and Long Shot are here in the city. The bad news is that Jet was brainwashed by the Dai Li. Aang and the others are now with him and are trying to treat him since he knows the location of either Appa or the Dai Li's main base."_

Naruto leaned against the wall while Lyra blinked. "Jet," he whispered. Zentrai nodded with wide eyes. "Why would he come to Ba Sing Se? And why didn't we picked up on him early on? We should have detected him at least with Shibaru and Rai or your telepathy."

The mute shrugged while turning his attention to the two large pets that strolled up to them, Rai still munching on a piece of flesh that was either an arm or a leg. The two large pets sat down and looked up at their masters with unblinking eyes before Zentrai said, _"He was out of range of my abilities. If he had been in range, I would have known and jumped him. Besides, he's with Aang's group at the moment. He might know something if I pester him." _

"No," Naruto said sternly. "We'll handle getting Appa back. We're heading back to the lake for some answers." Zentrai groaned. "I don't wanna hear it. I'll be in the water swimming around while you get to play in the sand. Lyra, you're with Zentrai on this. Stay with him and don't let him do anything stupid."

"Normal stupid or stupid stupid?"

"Both." She shrugged and they began heading back to the lake.

(-)

By the time they had gotten to the lake, Naruto was nearly ready to just destroy the entire lake just to find the place he needed to find. He was honestly annoyed because of the way Zentrai was acting and because a quick check up on the teens had them still trying to jog Jet's mind free of the brainwashing that Long Feng had done to him. It unnerved the three that this was going on, but every village and city had their secrets. Ba Sing Se was no exception to this.

"You going to strip down?" Naruto turned and gave Lyra a quick glance. She was grinning from ear to ear. She had her one arm crossed over under her bust as though she were crossing her arms and smiling as her eyes lowered to his stomach.

Naruto smirked and pulled his clothing off from the hips up, revealing his tanned skin and muscled body. Zentrai was shaking his head and sighing as the blond threw his clothing to the side. He walked out onto the water and stopped when he was about a hundred meters in and dropped straight down into the cool water. Zentrai shook his head again and started scanning the area for any traces of sentient life that knew of a base or anything while Lyra started kicking dirt.

Naruto swam without being aware of what they were doing. He had the idea on what they were doing, but he just didn't care. He swam deeper into the dark waters and soon hit the bottom. He looked around while pumping chakra into his eyes. His eyes turned crimson and allowed him to see better in the dark waters as he swam around the surface for anything out of the ordinary. Anything that would seem out of the ordinary meant a lot to Naruto. Anything could translate to a shoe being on the bottom of the lake with the way he was trained to work with Gen Fu.

He swam around for several minutes before being forced to hit the surface for air. He gasped as he devoured the air that he could fill his lungs with. He breathed deeply and then went back down. He searched for ten minutes before finally giving up. He broke out of the water and started walking along it before finding a small island. He took up residence for a moment and watched as the birds flew around in circles overhead.

"_We should rest for a bit," _he decided after continuing the search for another few hours. Zentrai picked up his thoughts and relayed them to Lyra. _"We need the others here to help us search for Appa. I really don't wanna let Aang know Appa might be here in the city when he's really not, but it looks like we have no choice now." _

There was a great pause before Zentrai said, _"Lyra thinks that Toph would be even more help than the others. Her way of seeing would help in more ways than one. I haven't found anything over here yet that could give us a possible clue to where Appa is, but she might be able to pull something out of her ass." _

Naruto sighed and cut the connection as he stood back up after reaching the island again. He looked back down at the water before walking out onto it. _Hang on Appa, we're coming for you. _

(-)

Rehka ran a hand over her face as she fought the urge to kill Drunkard as he chugged on another bottle of his preferred drink. "And let me get this straight so I know we're on the same page," she seethed with anger. "You let a dozen Kyoshi Warriors get captured all because you thought your targets were more important than a bunch of female fighters?" He nodded while taking another swig of his drink. She looked down as her nails dug into her palms, tearing through the flesh with ease. "Why?"

"Our target," he hiccupped and pulled out another bottle. "Our target was more important. We've been following them for awhile and we weren't going to risk letting them get away all because some stupid girls with fans were fighting three Fire Nation babes." He took a drink and it was instantly on the floor, broken when it struck the earth. "That stuff ain't cheap."

"Neither is human life!" She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "I'm sorry. I just can't believe that you and Blindside couldn't find it in your heart to rescue them. The Fire Nation will learn their secrets and try to attack their home now. They've managed to stay out of the war so far, but they are now getting involved."

"They should have stayed out of it. They'd live longer." He took another swig from a new bottle.

"You don't get the importance of this, do you?" He shook his head and continued to gulp down the liquid inside. "Suki, the leading military commander of the Kyoshi Warriors, was with them, among the captured. And she was also reported to have been with Zentrai, Naruto, and Lyra, whom are traveling with the Avatar. Now," she stood up and the old man gave her a sharp glance. "If she talks, they will know that he's in Ba Sing Se."

"They've never managed to break through the walls and bring the city to its knees," he grumbled. "And from what my sources say, they already know that. They stopped the drill and were seen throughout the fighting. They are already aware that he's in the city."

"But they didn't know he was looking for his lost pet!" She calmed her nerves by smothering her hands over her chest and said, "I'm sorry for yelling at you, Drunkard. I'm new to this sort of thing." He waved it off and stood up. "You're through for the day. You can report back to the others and do whatever you wish. Just see that the other two come in next." He shrugged and walked off, opening the door with his foot while he searched for another bottle in his many pockets.

When the door clanged open, Rehka's eyes locked with the form of Reaper trying to seduce Blindside. He seemed pretty calm despite having her practically humping his leg at the moment. They both walked in, Reaper grinning from ear to ear as she did.

"Please take a seat," she ordered. Reaper made a quick note of the place and then sat down on top of Blindside as though her were a chair. "Get your own chair, Reaper." The insane woman pouted but complied. "Now, I had you come here so that we can discuss the information you gathered from the three men you captured, Shin."

Reaper turned to Blindside and said, "Shin? You're name is Shin?" He nodded with a small bit of annoyance. "What a ridicules name. Is that your cover-cover name?"

"Reaper, leave it!"

The scythe wielding psychopath ignored her as she continued. "Why is your name Shin? Did your adoptive daddy like it more than Blindside?" Shin's hand went to the hilt of his weapon and she did the same. "I'll win, daddy's little boy."

"Perhaps," he replied smoothly. She glowered at him and swung her weapon. In a flash her weapon was blocked by Shin's Sakabatō. "You rely on brute force while I rely on the skill of my weapon, Reaper." She stood up and pulled her weapon back and then swung again. Shin remained sitting as he blocked her weapon with ease. Reaper growled and tried again only for her weapon to be caught mid swing by Shin. "We are here for a meeting, not a fight. Now sit down, Reaper. I'm not going to waste my time here when I'm needed back at father's side."

He tossed her weapon to the side and sat back down. She glowered down on him and then sat down again while saying, "Stupid daddy's boy," with a voice that carried.

"Enough, Reaper," Rehka shouted. The ground cracked and rose, trapping the woman with two large chunks of earth. Two men stepped in from the shadows and gave a quick glance to Rehka. She waved them off while saying, "You're help is not needed. I have the situation under control." They gave a quick glance to the pinned girl and dropped the earth slabs before returning to the shadows. When Reaper was freed her weapon was taken and thrown into the wall by Shin just in case she tried to use it. "Now that that's been taken…"

"I don't need a weapon to kill you, daddy's boy." Reaper cut off Rehka and sneered at the young swordsman.

"Enough," Rehka screamed again. "Any further outbursts from you, Reaper, and I will find a replacement for your rank as the Rank Four Assassin." Reaper quieted and gave the new leader a quiet nod. "Now, if you would be so kind, Shin. Could you please tell us what you have learned from your target before you hand him over to Den?"

"Yes, Ma'am," he coughed and stood up. He moved to the side and snapped his fingers. A man rushed in through the closed door, presenting a small scroll and tome for him before bowing and leaving. "We learned of a few supply convoys that are en route to one of the major Fire Nation cities. The Order of the White Lotus will not intervene in this. We have our orders from the Grand Lotus to keep quiet and out of sight for the time being."

"Understood."

"One of the major threats now is an advanced team of Fire Nation soldiers, four battalions to be accurate, heading to engage the walls of Ba Sing Se while crushing any and all villages or small cities on their projected path. They are also dispatching small elite teams to take out their supply lines again. This will cripple their food storages that are dependent on these items for at least six months if they take out even one supply convoy. As a representative of the Order of the White Lotus, I'm asking that you send an elite team to guard these convoys. They move out at least once every four months. We cannot allow even one of them to be destroyed."

"We're doing this for the snobby rich people, right?" Reaper asked. Shin nodded regrettably. She sighed and then snorted. "Let them go a few days without their delicate items of food. Meat is meat and vegetables are vegetables. They'll survive on that for six months even if one of the convoys' are hit."

He opened up his book and said, "That is not the main item that travels with the convoy." He consulted the book and then said, "Seeds, animals, and other produce not native to Ba Sing Se came through with these convoys. Clothing of every style also comes with them as well. If even one convoy is hit, they would be devastated like last year. And being hit isn't the main thing. Poison is also something that has been passed through the convoys without incident. Five years ago one of the convoys was hit and the entire Outer Ring was exposed to a plague that killed hundreds before an antidote was procured by the Assassins Ranked Two and Three."

"They have a name," Rehka cut in. "And I am fully aware of the plague that struck them. Naruto and Zentrai did procure a treatment for them through two of our leading poison and healing masters. But carry on."

He sighed while snapping the book shut. "The convoys must be protected. They will be leaving from a small Earth Kingdom village near the sea. They will pickup supplies from ships and then head out. It will take them, months to reach their destination. But the Fire Nation is well aware of these convoys and has been nagging at them for the last three decades. We cannot allow them to be hit this time around. A million lives on are the line. I trust you can complete the mission?"

He was smiling at them.

Reaper hated that smile. She stood up and barked out, "We'll take your stupid fucking protection mission! Me and my girls…"

"You're team is on hold for the time being." Rehka interjected. Reaper turned, a thin blade poised from her sleeve in anger. Rehka remained calm. "I'll send Setsuna and his team to handle this. They are more than capable of handling this sort of mission. And am to also assume that the convoy will not be aware of their protection?" Shin simply nodded and she smiled. "Reaper, we all know you prefer the direct approach. Setsuna and his team can stay in the shadows unlike you." She breathed deeply and looked to Shin. "Is there anything else you have for us?"

"Nothing that needs attendance now," he replied with a cheerful smile.

"Good. Can you please see to it that Setsuna and his team report to me? I will lay out the mission details for them and have them head out as quickly as I can." Reaper turned to leave only to have Rehka say, "Reaper, could you please stay here for a moment. I need to speak with you about something." Shin walked out smirking as he shut the door. Reaper remained with a scowl on her face as she took her seat again. "I'm aware that Sparky is dead and you need a replacement. A girl even."

"Females are the dominant sex," she replied with a smile.

"Naturally." She withdrew a few rolled up scrolls and passed them to her. "I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but Chieko, Chiyoko, Moe, Momo, Susumu, and Suzume are all very powerful assassins that excel in Sparky's area of expertise." She waited for Reaper to say something. Instead of saying anything, she simply turned with the scrolls in hand and walked out, slamming the door shut as she did. _That girl will be the death of me. _She looked to the shadows and then smiled.

(-)

Jet was on the ground blinking while Smellerbee and Long Shot were standing over him with grins. Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph seemed a bit at a loss, but Naruto and Lyra were too busy laughing when they started asking questions to answer.

"_Jet," _Zentrai screamed in everyone's mind. It was a bit annoying, but Zentrai had forgone all of his mental discipline and formal greetings to tackle Jet into the ground and hug him. _"Did you miss me?! I know you did!" _

"Zentrai," Jet growled as he reeled back. He struck him as hard as he could in the head with his fist and watched in joy as the Rank Three assassin jumped off while holding his head. "I'm happy to see you too man, but seriously, you need to learn to act more mature." The young man stood back up and dusted his pants off. He looked to the two assassins and smirked. "It's been awhile since we last saw each other, Naruto. Lyra, what are you doing here? I thought you were back at the Tower of Silence working in his absence since he's needed in the war."

She smiled and hugged him gently before answering. "A lot of things have change, Jet. For starters, Zentrai is no longer the Rank One Assassin. He gave up the title as our leader and handed it over to Rehka. She is now the Rank One Assassin."

"No kidding?" He scratched the back of his head while smiling. "I guess it really has been awhile since I last went back to the nameless village. My bad." He laughed a little.

"Don't feel too bad. We understand that you lost your nerve and couldn't see things through to the end back at the village. But then again," Lyra turned her gaze to Aang and his group, "you had quite a little trouble last time we checked."

Katara blinked and then shouted, "You knew what he was up to, and you let him get away with it?!" They nodded without hesitation. "How can you be that way? Hundreds of people were going to die that were innocent in this war! He was going to kill them all had we not stopped him! Why would you allow such a thing?"

Naruto took a deep breath and sat down on a small rock inside the cave they were in. The greetings had been brought inside the cave so that any spies of the Dai Li couldn't see or hear them. Zentrai had detected them and learned the location of the base they needed, but had yet to find a way in.

"Yes, we were aware of his actions. In all honesty, he should have found another way of doing it that wouldn't have destroyed the place. Hitting their supply lines and crop fields were good ideas, but he forgot what he was taught by us when we worked with him. He should have done things differently." The blond ran a hand through his hair as Zentrai smiled suddenly. "But his actions were turned to dust by you. This war is not a game. People die. Innocent people even die in wars. I had to learn that the hard way. Back when I wasn't the Rank Two Assassin, I thought I could protect everyone and keep the innocent safe. The world doesn't work like that. No one is innocent. Not even you are innocent, Aang."

The young Avatar gave him a strange glance but said nothing as he watched him stand up.

"_We're in the clear. I can't sense any agents in the area. We can head out now." _Zentrai cracked his neck and groaned. _"I wish Sonia were here. She'd blow me right now and do it for free."_

Jet chuckled. "How long has it been since he's had sex?"

"Not long enough," Toph grumbled. Jet started laughing while the others walked out. "You said there was a secret entrance they were using, right?" The assassins nodded and Toph walked over to a near random part of the beach. She took a stance and then brought up an earth bridge complete with a hole over the end of it. "Secret entrance found."

"Nice job," Lyra said while blushing.

"You're an Earthbender too, yet you couldn't find it because…?" Sokka asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I have one arm and both eyes still working perfectly while she has two arms and no eyes! She can bend in a different way than I can! I use my eyes and my fist for combat! She doesn't!" Lyra shouted back at him. Sokka grinned only to have Toph burry him up to his elbows in earth. He whimpered and was released. "Don't mess with us Earthbenders, Sokka! We're mean people." She gave him a predatorily grin before walking up to the entrance. "Long way down," she observed.

Momo took flight and Aang couldn't blame him.

"Let's get going," Naruto ordered as he dropped down.

(-)

Long Feng scowled deeply as he got the report. He wasn't expecting them to fix Jet's mind and have him bring the assassins and the Avatar here. If he had had time to plan for this he might have pulled back all of his agents and moved the Bison again. He couldn't do that now that they were inside. The only left for him to do was to try and lure the Avatar out of the city and out of his hair.

He pocked at the fire and then stood up. "Gather all of the available agents and have them meet me in the torture room," he ordered to one of the shadows. There was a rustle and then a nod before a wall appeared. He ran a hand over his face and stopped to message his small goatee while saying, "A direct confrontation with either the assassins or the Avatar will end badly. I have to lure him away with the Bison. That's my only choice."

(-)

"This place is big," Sokka whispered. Naruto clamped a hand over his mouth and motioned for him to keep quiet. He smiled innocently and soon was released.

The place was huge and dark. Only small green crystals gave the place any light, but it still wasn't enough to get rid of all of the shadows that lay before them. It was built under a mountain and under the lake, according to what Zentrai could pick up from some new recruits that Long Feng had persuaded to his side. There were only two major entrances with only a dozen emergency exits. Naruto wasn't very pleased with being underground though. It just felt creepy to him.

Zentrai motioned for them to stop and they halted on a flight of stairs. Two men walked back, not noticing the teens that were camouflaged in the darkened stairs. When the two men passed them by, Zentrai looked around the corner and then smiled. _"They're heading towards a secret meeting in one of the chambers," _he said quietly through the mental link. The others nodded and began moving out.

Jet took point with his twin hook swords and looked through a cracked door. Inside were a dozen women in similar robes with their hair done up in unique styles. A single Dai Li agent stood before them, his back to the teens that passed them as he said, "I am Joo Dee. Welcome to Ba Sing Se."

"I am Joo Dee. Welcome to Ba Sing Se," they repeated in unison.

"We're so lucky to have our walls to create order."

"We're so lucky to have our walls to create order."

Naruto was the last one to pass and sent the man a hostile glare. He shuddered, showing signs that he felt it, but didn't understand it.

They passed through corridors with Jet leading the way. "I think there's a cell big enough to hold Appa," he announced as they reached another cell. Zentrai froze for a split second and then turned his attention down the hall. Jet took notice of it and paused in his movements to open the earth door. "Something wrong," he asked.

The mute stared into the darkness for another minute before saying, _"I thought I picked up the presence of someone familiar. But I think it was an error on my end." _Naruto looked his friend over and then looked down the path he was checking out. Zentrai shifted uneasily, a sign that he was a little annoyed by the strange sensation of not knowing who he had connected to for the briefest of moments. But he checked his emotions and said, _"I can't detect anyone on the otherside of this door. We should be good." _

Jet nodded and threw the door open. It was dark inside the chamber, but the assassins paid it no mind as they ventured in. The moment they walked in fully, the door slammed shut and Zentrai swore loudly to the group as lights flickered on.

Long Feng with three dozen Dai Li agents were waiting for them. "That's something different," Sokka said as he looked up. Most of the Dai Li agents were in fact hanging from the ceiling via chains or by using their Earthbending.

"You have made yourselves enemies of the state," Long Feng informed them.

Naruto blurred forward with inhuman speed and jabbed one hand into the closes man's chest. His hand buried deep within his chest so fast that when he pulled it out the man had a chance to scream in terror before falling over. The two closes to him quickly threw out rock cuffs that grappled onto both hands and bound him for a moment. Naruto hastily broke them and blurred towards the two. One jumped to the side, his instincts taking over while the other tried bending at him. The blond pivoted around his attack and slammed an open palm into his chest, knocking out the back part of his uniform. The other man dropped dead with a weapon burred deep within his skull.

"You wanna run that by me again?"

Long Feng stared at the three dead men for a fraction of a second. That could have been him among the dead. He steeled himself for what needed to be done and took a firm stance as he waved one hand. "Take them into custody."

"You're funeral." Naruto turned towards the mute and gave him a sly smile. "Zentrai, go wild."

The mute smiled hungrily. While Zentrai wasn't as well known as Naruto among the populace of the world, he was still very well known for his fighting styles. Zentrai normally was kept on the sidelines for various reasons in his fighting methods, namely his unusual ability to destroy everything in sight with his weapons. His inability to control his powers had always kept him on the sidelines unless there was a great amount of distance between you and him. But put him in a small area like this place and let him go wild, and he ended up having more control because he didn't have to fling his weapons three hundred yards and try to control billions of them.

And the chamber they were in was rather small, but not overly small, and just barely big enough to have a full out fight between the two parties. So when Naruto told Zentrai to go wild, it was no wonder that eight men dropped before they could try anything.

The fight quickly turned into a massive battle with the teens all working together to take down the Dai Li agents. Jet worked quickly with Zentrai to dispatch three at a time while Long Shot took cover behind the group while still moving with them, shooting their rock gloves out of the air with his arrows.

Toph moved up high, luring four agents as she did. The battle of the Earthbender began with Toph dodging their attacks or blocking them with her own. She sent blocks of earth at those that tried to get in close while jumping to avoid two pillars that collided together where she was. She pulled up more chunks of earth and threw it at the men that dared to get close before a single rock glove grabbed the back of her clothing to yank her down.

She grunted and was rescued by Jet as he swopped across the air, catching her with his hook swords. He rolled with her as Long Shot appeared in front of him, an arrow already flying while another was quickly pulled back and let loose. The first arrow slammed into the first rock glove, destroying both projectiles quickly and effectively. The second was taken down by a quick flash of silver while the second arrow moved swiftly into the skull of the man that fired it.

Two more appeared to replace their fallen comrade and began firing at them with their rock glove fragments that made them up. Jet rolled over the back of his friend and began swinging his weapons, cutting the rocks apart before they could get close to his friend.

Naruto through all of this stood perfectly calm and still, just like Long Feng. The man was staring at the teen as he continued to watch him. Long Feng found it strange that none of his agents were moving to attack him, but then again he could easily understand. Zentrai was throwing weapons left and right, cutting into the men with ease and taking them down nearly four at a time while Lyra was fighting alongside Toph. The Avatar was just blasting his men back while Sokka and Katara were intent on keeping the men down without killing them.

But Naruto remained standing in the same spot he had been since the fighting began. He contemplated his chances of fighting the teen and then realized that it'd be suicidal. So for the moment he decided to watch him and the others as they battled his men.

Naruto for the most part remained transfixed on Long Feng. The man was a mystery to him. He could understand Azula standing up to him; she was a royal princess and believed that she was entitled to everything. But Long Feng wasn't royalty. Naruto couldn't understand his angle in all of this. What was his motivation outside of remaining in power? Why was he trying to keep the people safe that were inside the walls while totally ignoring the war? Did he secretly side with the Fire Nation?

The blond leaned back, evading a single chunk of granite the size of his fist and calmly waved one hand to the side where it had come from. There was a muffled splat and cough and then a Dai Li agent fell with the weapon he'd tossed lodged in his skull through his left eye socket.

Long Feng eyed his fallen fighters and then noticed that the balance of the fight was now getting closer to him with each man that fell. He scrutinized his men and their abilities as they began to dwindle down to nothing. Cutting his losses now, he turned and ran through a secret exit.

Aang watched him depart while blasting three more people. "Long Feng is escaping," he cried out. Jet batted two more agents away and went into pursuit with Aang.

Naruto just sighed as he watched five more agents appear to block the exit. "Get out of my way," he spat. The men stood their ground as the rest of their men fell before the might of Zentrai and Lyra. The others stood took up fighting stances and waited for them to make a move. Naruto messaged the side of his head. "This is too troublesome. Get out of my way now, or simply die. You're pick."

They wavered for a moment and then attack. Naruto sidestepped their attacks and got in close. Three hit the ground dead while the fourth one was pinned to the wall with Naruto's hand on his throat. He whimpered as the blond put pressure on his neck and then said, "Tell me where the Bison is." He didn't reply. Naruto applied more pressure until his left eye started to bleed. "Tell me where the Bison is now."

"I don't have anything left to lose," he mumbled.

Naruto turned to his mute friend and watched him for a moment. He nodded and Naruto smiled. "Never mind… We got the information now." His wrist twitched a loud crack echoed through the chamber, signaling that his neck was now broken. "We have the location of the Bison. He's here and close by."

"We need to go help Aang," Katara urged. Zentrai picked up a double meaning behind that before he dropped to one knee with his eyes blinking rapidly. Katara was quickly to his side, her water out and scanning him over. "Are you okay?"

The mute hastily got back to his feet and shoved his way past his comrades as he ran down the secret exit. Naruto dropped the corpse and watched Zentrai run. He turned to Lyra and said, "That can't be a good sign."

(-)

Aang wasn't sure what had truly happened. He had honestly thought that Katara's Waterbending trick had healed Jet. But that wasn't the case.

Long Feng had lured them into a trap, knowing that Aang would follow him with Jet right on his tail. He seemed almost disappointed to know that the assassins hadn't followed or the rest of his friends, but he had stuffed those feeling down quickly. With but a single phrase the balance of power shifted and Jet was soon fighting Aang with the intent to kill. Aang couldn't find it in himself to fight his friend like this and had tried to speak with him and talk him out of it.

_Some good that did me, _he noted with real sympathy.

He broke the bindings on Jet's mind by making him remember what he was: a Freedom Fighter. He was happy when Jet returned to normal, but that feeling quickly passed. Jet had turned to attack Long Feng with his weapon, throwing it straight at him. Long Feng had sidestepped the attack and bent the Earth at him. In a cloud of dust Jet fell with a giant rock smacking dead on into his ribs. From the sound that had echoed through the chamber he knew Jet's ribs were broken, if not all of them.

And this was all his fault.

The entrance was sliced open and Zentrai appeared, swords at the ready with nearly a dozen weapons hovering over his form. He looked to Jet and then Aang. He scanned their minds and growled as he ran up to them with the others following closely behind. He dropped his weapons and looked down at Jet as he smiled up at him.

"Looks like I got careless again," he said.

Zentrai shook his head while Katara began healing him. She shook her head and said, "This isn't good."

"You go and find Appa," Smellerbee said quickly. "We'll take care of him."

"We're not leaving you behind."

"There's no time," Long Shot said quietly. Odd as he was, it was the first time Naruto or Lyra had heard the guy talk. His voice was near whisper quiet like Hawkeye's voice. He looked up, his eyes catching some of the light as he said, "He's our leader. We'll take care of him."

The teens wavered for a minute before Jet smiled and said, "Don't worry about me, Katara. I'll be alright."

Naruto looked to his mute friend and said, "Stay with him, Zentrai. Get them out of here and away from this place. Dai Li agents will probably swarm this place soon." The mute showed no signs of listening, but Naruto knew he understood his orders. "We know where Appa is. Follow me."

The team sluggishly followed suit with Toph and Sokka bringing up the rear. "He's lying," Toph whispered to the Water Tribe warrior. Sokka said nothing to this as they followed Naruto through the twisting corridors.

The blond led them straight to a small door and swung it open. Like the other chambers it was devoid of any light, but this one actually had a small opening to let in fresh air where a small trickle of sunlight rained down. In the center of the thing were six massive chains that were now free of anything. The blond swore and turned to leave as Sokka said, "We're too late. Long Feng couldn't have taken him very far. If we keep moving, maybe we can catch up to them."

They all turned and ran towards the exit.

(-)

Long Feng breathed deeply as he went over everything in his head one last time.

He killed Jet. The teen was of no use to him. The assassins were looking for the Bison with the Avatar, and he doubted they'd find them because it was already gone when he went to the chamber it was being kept in. The shackles that had been strapped to its feet were actually released via a key, meaning that either one of his agents had betrayed him or someone else had snuck in without his knowledge. He figured it was the latter option since he made sure no one would betray him.

He ran a hand over his face as he began thinking. The Bison was gone and the teens would soon exit the facility. He could get them back on land. He could bring the place down right now, but he'd lose valuable agents and other commodities that he didn't want to lose.

He stopped short of the exit and strolled down another corridor. He walked for a few minutes before coming to a single cell. A pair of jade eyes shone in the dark and he smiled. "You're needed," he said in a demanding tone. "Get up and get dressed. You get to play for a little bit."

A fiendish snarl sounded and the ground quacked as the eyes moved behind his sight inside the cell.

(-)

Zentrai busted out a wall and continued to move with Jet in his arms. Smellerbee and Long Shot stayed a good distance behind him.

Naruto had been right: Dai Li agents had shown up to finish them off. But they hadn't counted on a pissed off version of Zentrai cutting them to pieces so fast that Smellerbee and Long Shot were left wondered which one he killed first. And since then they had stayed behind him letting him mow down any fool stupid enough to get between him and the exit.

The wall that had once been a wall and was now a door shuddered and groaned. The place was clearly coming down now. Zentrai moved fast through the exit he created and made sure the other two got out safely. Jet remained conscious though, still alive and kicking. He was helping them find an exit.

"This way," he said while pointing down the corridor to the left. Zentrai moved quickly with the two teens running behind him. His hair kept his eyes from view, but Jet knew what was happening to him at the moment. There was no hiding what he could sense in the mute. _"I'm sorry,"_ he whispered through the mental connection. Zentrai tensed for a moment. Jet closed his eyes. _"I should have never strayed too far from you guys. I let my anger control me, just like you said it would. I'm sorry."_

"_Don't be," _Zentrai sent to him. He was happy his way of speaking didn't betray the guilt and sadness his felt. If he spoke like a normal person his voice would have been chocked and horsed. He would have had to fight back all of his emotions just to remain as though he were fully in control of the situation. _"I should have never let you go at this alone. I should have made you stay with me and Naruto when I had the chance." _

Jet said nothing as they pushed through the darkness towards the light. Zentrai stopped short of the exit and turned to the two teens. He motioned them to go first. They didn't complain. Smellerbee went first with Long Shot going second. They moved through the small passage and exited into sunlight with Zentrai bringing up the rear. He moved hastily down the beach and moved directly in front of a small out cropping of rocks.

He sat the wounded leader down and checked him over.

"Don't bother," he said quietly. Zentrai ignored him and continued to check his pulse. Healing him was out of the question and Zentrai knew it. He wasn't a healer. He knew basic first aid and that wouldn't cut it here. But Jet knew how sever the injuries were and he knew that Zentrai knew them as well. "I'm sorry for dragging you two into this." Jet turned his gaze to his two friends. "I should have listened to you guys when I had the chance. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," the female Freedom Fighter said sadly. Tears formed in her eyes and Zentrai had to keep his head down so they couldn't see his own tears. She ran a sleeved hand over her face and said, "We should have forced you to understand. We never should have left you to deal with those two people. We should have tried harder."

Jet shook his head, an effort that caused him great pain. _Yeah, _he thought, c_racked ribs and a fractured if not broken spine. _He might have laughed if the pain wasn't as unbearable as it was. He coughed, regretting that it was involuntary action and said, "Zentrai, you have to look after Aang. Go to him. I'll be alright."

"_No. Naruto ordered me to remain at your side. I'm not leaving you." _

Jet said nothing. Zentrai continued to check him over even knowing that it was doing him no good.

Long Shot turned around and spied a few Dai Li agents moving towards them. Dozens of them were moving straight for them. He silently turned to Smellerbee that picked up his silent message and readied an arrow.

"_Leave them," _Zentrai ordered. Long Shot turned to face the mute as he rose to his feet. Jet's eyes closed and the teen kept his head down. _"I will take them on by myself." _Zentrai's packs opened up and his blades shot into the air. The two weapon caches' he carried emptied and dropped to the ground. _"__Niga'toka Shi, lord of hunters and mother of blades, grant that my hands be steady and my mind sharp. Grant me aim that will remain true and never falter. Guide my feet with swift winds and warm shadows. Should the worst come to pass and I lay dead, grant me forgiveness for my times past."_

The Dai Li agents looked to the sky and watched as the blades rained down around them. They didn't bat an eyelash as the weapons circled them, hummed, and then began to churn up the land around them.

"_Only one person will walk out of this ring of blades alive," _Zentrai sent to them. They paused and looked up at him for the barest of moments. Hatred flashed in his eyes as his tears were blown away by the dust and win that kicked up from his spinning blades. _"Now die slowly." _

(-)

Naruto knew what was going on the moment he saw Shibaru turn and whimper. He didn't even bother with an explanation to the other teens, he just ran. It was about the only thing anyone could do when they got stuck in this situation.

_Zentrai, _he thought with distain. He didn't bother looking over his shoulder to see if the others were following him. He didn't even care anymore. Zentrai's safety, along with Smellerbee and Long Shot's, were now his responsibility. _I should have never left him to this. He's too prone to wanting to destroy his enemies when his friends and family die or get captured. I should have seen this coming. _

Naruto ran across the open field as fast as he could without using his enhanced powers. Doing that would send up a signal flare to anyone that knew what it felt like. He didn't doubt for a moment that Long Feng knew what that might feel like or that Ty Lee or Azula could spot the change it did to the air around him.

Naruto's powers, or rather the remains of Kyuubi's energy, actually warped the air and caused a massive amount of distortion. It was hard to see up close, but from a good distance it was easily spotted. Dark clouds would form and lightning actually crackled. While up close to Naruto these effects weren't seen, but from a distance they were. It was a mystery he once tried to understand but failed. He knew it meant nothing good for him or those in the area.

So he stuck to running as fast as he could without powering up.

"Naruto," Aang cried out. The blond glanced up into the sky and spied Aang riding on Appa's head. "What's wrong?"

"It's Zentrai." Naruto jumped over a large boulder, hit the ground, rolled, and sprang back up to his feet. "Stay up on the cliff. I'll join you in a moment. I think you'll be needed if I think what's happening is about to go down. We may have to stop Zentrai with brute force if he's become unstable." Aang didn't want to think about that and moved Appa up onto the cliff's edge.

"_Niga'toka Shi, lord of hunters and mother of blades, grant that my hands be steady and my mind sharp. Grant me aim that will remain true and never falter. Guide my feet with swift winds and warm shadows. Should the worst come to pass and I lay dead, grant me forgiveness for my times past." _Zentrai's mental voice rang through his mind, along with that of the others.

Naruto swore loudly and jumped towards the cliff face. He had to get to high ground now.

Niga'toka Shi was a legendary assassin that had transcended a god by the word of Shinigami for her skills. Zentrai, along with most of the assassins, Naruto included, believed in him and were forced to recite such a passage when they were about to kill a great many enemies that they would be taking their anger out on. It was generally used on people that had done wrong to them. Naruto remembered the first time he used the passage and how he felt bad afterwards. It had been when he had slaughtered dozens of men after Gen Fu's death. They hadn't used it at the Fire Nation stronghold during the first battle against Azula because they were facing an enemy that had not only wrong them, but also did so knowing the punishment that would follow.

"And for Zentrai to use it now…" He shook his head and moved up to the cliff's edge where Aang and the others were watching something. Naruto moved to their side and looked out at it.

Near an outcropping of rocks where five circles were made out of blades. The first ring was only twenty meters in diameter with the others adding ten meters to them. Naruto had seen this formation before. It was used to signal the world that he fought in for battles where everyone trapped within them would die. The rings represented those trapped in them and the world they lived in, thus meaning that the first ring was meant for those to die first. As Zentrai would clear out the men in one ring, he could move to the next one. But this wouldn't stop them from attacking him in mass.

The rings were also a lure system as well. While it was true that Zentrai could also move out of the rings and strike them down, he wouldn't do that. He was honor bound by his words. He would strike each man down in the set ring before moving on. Of course if the Dai Li agents moved closer to him and began attacking he could kill them as well. It was an odd system and honor code that Naruto didn't understand, but what he did understand was that only one person was allowed to leave these rings alive.

Katara looked over to Lyra and said, "What is he doing?"

The one armed Earthbender sent a strange glance that was unreadable. "He's going to kill them. That's all you probably will understand," she said sternly. Aang looked heated over that and was about to make a comment when a cry echoed from below. "He's begun his slaughter. You should mind you eyes and ears. What you see down there will either haunt you or destroy you or give you an understanding of the twists to this world."

"You almost make it seem like this world is twisted," Aang said sharply. Naruto grunted with a nod. "It's not as twisted as you make it seem." Aang snapped.

"Yes it is." Naruto folded his arms over his chest and said, "This world is twisted, Aang. Some people are just better at hiding it then others. What Long Feng has been doing is twisted. He's kept a blind eye to the terror that is eating away at this world and giving these people false hopes and dreams. With one hand he covers the eyes of the King and with the other he spreads false truths. What he's doing is noble to an extent, but it's wrong. Can you not argue that what he's doing it wrong and right at the same time?"

Silence greeted the teen.

"Long Feng has made Ba Sing Se a true utopia where the war isn't known about to all and has brought peace to these people. He has allowed those that lost their homes and loved ones a place for a new beginning in the request that the war not be mentioned so it doesn't spread to the other rings. He has saved billions of lives by doing this. But he's damning many more by not acting. He is a hero to some and a demon to others. He is what mankind truly has to offer for this world. He represents us all with his actions."

Aang turned away. "This world still isn't as twisted as you make it sound," he grumbled.

(-)

Zentrai began his assault. What weapons remained at his side quickly flew out as he reached behind his back. Walls of earth surge upwards and blocked his attacks. He expected that from them. Dai Li agents weren't pushovers. They were strong and steady. They would probably have made great assassins if they joined their ranks.

The walls obscured their view of the teen for a brief moment, giving him the opening he needed. From his back he withdrew a pouch that clattered as he held it out. The walls of earth were lowered or stepped around, presenting the Dai Li agents with the view of true terror. Zentrai uncoiled the small piece of leather that kept back the items inside. They attacked and a wall of blades moved to his side, spinning and cutting their way through the rocks.

The agents blinked once, spun with the fluid motions of the bending attacks, and struck again. Once more they were blocked by the wall of swords and left cursing as he was lifted into the air by two weapons that surged beneath his feet. They watched and waited for a chance to attack. He had the advantage in terms of fighting ability. He had the air and higher ground. But he left Smellerbee and Long Shot vulnerable to attack.

They moved as one and attacked the two living teens that guarded the body of Jet. A wall of blades blocked their attack as Zentrai said, _"Your lives are forfeit. You have no honor in life and you will have none in death. Your deaths will be quick. Now fall before my million blades." _

Zentrai turned the pouch over and a million tiny fragmented blades the size of a pinky nail that was paper thin fell out. The men tracked them, already aware of how his powers worked. They looked beautiful as they glittered in the sunlight. They never hit the ground. They floated until the thing was emptied and discarded. The tiny blades spun slowly in the air, turning into what looked like a million leafs or flower petals.

The agents got ready to fight when one of them dropped without a sound. He just dropped with no visible sign of a wound. No blood covered his uniform. His eyes weren't even wide in shock. Zentrai lowered himself back to the ground and kept his head down.

They moved as one and attacked again. Their attacks were halted instantly, torn to pieces by the tiny fragmented blades that reflected the light of the sun. They circled around Zentrai and the three teens while others moved in a cohesive mass to drown two of the opponents in a fury of tiny blades that cut the enemy to shreds. The men backed up and looked for an advantage. They found none. One turned to run only to be skewered by the weapons around them.

"_Only one person will live through this." _He took up a solid stance with his legs spread and one arm raised up high.

They paused and gave him a hard look. Suddenly, the idea of fighting just didn't sit well with them.

(-)

"What happened to him," Sokka asked.

Naruto stiffened. "Zentrai's attack is actually an illusion of sorts. People think his weapons, those fragmented blades, vanish. They don't. They're paper thin and when moved correctly can seemingly vanish right in front of you. What Zentrai did to that first person was use one to get into his heart and destroy it so fast that his body couldn't react. In others words, he died standing up and passed without even realizing it. His body didn't register his death until a few seconds after it had been dead."

"I've never seen him take up a stance before." Aang turned to Zentrai and Lyra, looking between both assassins as he asked, "I thought he didn't use them."

Lyra shifted slightly. "Usually he doesn't need to. His weapons are near paper thin and thus he has no need to use the stances. But the stances do what most benders need when fighting, a better way to control their attacks. For Zentrai he's able to move his weapons faster, make them sharper, and on rare occasions, make them truly heat up as the cut the air or ground, creating friction. He normally never uses the stances, but he still can use them. It just makes his attacks faster and stronger."

The teens gave him a strange look and then looked back to the fight. Toph said, "Why is fighting like this now? Why is Jet so important to him?"

Lyra's features softened for a moment as her eyes closed. "Jet was the closest thing to a younger brother that Zentrai had before Naruto joined us," she began. She ran a hand through her hair, a nervous habit to be sure when Zentrai got like this. She didn't like him like this. He was far from the sweet and innocent person she remembered him as when he was like this. "Before Naruto joined our group, Zentrai wanted a younger brother so badly that he actually tried establishing bounds with everyone. Eventually he realized that it was an impossible task because he wanted a younger brother, not a younger sister."

The female assassin craned her neck to the side, a loud pop sounding. She rubbed her neck and then scratched at the back of her neck.

"Zentrai was raised in a brothel, which explains his odd behavior if you didn't already know about it. He may treat women like toys, but he respects us for who and what were are. Women can be dangerous fighters as he already knows." Katara had the mental image of Sparky, Reaper and Hawkeye for a moment. "When Zentrai met Jet he established a quick bound with him. Overtime they become brothers and Zentrai had Jet's loyalty. Jet truly looked up to him and Zentrai truly cared for him."

"That explains how you guys also know him then," Katara whispered.

"Yes. But it goes deeper than that," Naruto answered quickly. All eyes turned to him. "Jet not only looks up to Zentrai, but Zentrai, in a way, looks up to him. Jet has been able to do the things that he could never do and Zentrai is the same. Jet has a remarkable charisma that Zentrai could never have. He had charm and a strange knack for understanding things that Zentrai couldn't. Zentrai was a remarkable swordsman and even taught Jet a few tricks. With all the negatives that they both had, their positives canceled out their own negatives. They complemented each other in combat much like we do with Zentrai. Jet was quick on his feet, able to think fast and adapt to sudden changes. Zentrai's support, assault, and defensive in nature and moves with fluid grace."

"So they could do what the other couldn't," Sokka whispered. He understood that.

Put an assault team together to just assault an enemy and they could still fail in their task no matter how good they are. You need a stable team that understands each other, works as one, and has a solid leadership figure. Zentrai was clearly a heavy hitter with Naruto being the same, but he also gave a good defense if what he was seeing were true. Lyra was clearly a good defensive person and could easily be considered a better defender then Zentrai. They were an ideal team, one that could take on anything and do it well and effectively.

A sudden thought sprang through Aang's mind and he said, "Didn't you once tell me that Zentrai was the leader of your village before Rehka took over?"

"Yes," Naruto answered truthfully. "But what you're about to ask is the one true weakness to Zentrai. You see, just like me, Zentrai can't let someone truly go. I have never forgotten the deaths of my friends and family members. One cannot simply forget and let go of the past as easily as you might expect, Aang. This is Zentrai's one weakness. He can send people to their deaths, knowing what he was doing. But the thing is that Zentrai can't handle losing someone precious to him, just like I can't. We've all lost people in this war, but Zentrai takes it personal. And with Jet being as much a brother as he possibly can…"

"Zentrai will feel as though he lost a true sibling," Toph ended. Naruto and Lyra both nodded. "So he was born and made an orphan by the war. Raised in a brothel. And had no true siblings outside of Jet?" She shook her head. "I feel sorry for the poor guy."

"You shouldn't shed tears over this though. Zentrai is strong. He will endure. He has endured much. He's endured more than I have. But he will not falter. He will rise to the occasion and move on. It's what we were trained to do. The life of a warrior has been turned into this, Aang. We fight, die, and move on to fight another battle. There is no time for grieving or sorrow. Only fighting in an endless war. That is all we have time to do."

"That's wrong!"

"Is it?" The blond turned his gaze to Zentrai as he continued to decimate the Dai Li agents. Nothing could withstand his attacks. "Look down there and tell me what you see."

"I see Zentrai fighting and killing people."

Naruto shook his head. "That's not all that's down there." Naruto motioned to the group behind him. Protected by his weapons was the body of Jet and the two huddling forms of Long Shot and Smellerbee. "Zentrai isn't fighting for revenge fully. He understands what he's doing is revenge, but he's truly fighting for them. He's fighting for the younger generation so they don't have to. He's fighting to protect the lives of his friends. He's fighting to protect them. Fighting to kill and fighting to protect something are two very different things. When you have been consumed by the desire to kill you are lost forever."

"But it's wrong and evil."

"Those are just words used to describe something we can't understand or don't like," Lyra whispered to him. She turned, grabbing Aang by his shoulder and motioned towards the fight. "Is what you see evil or good? Is what the Fire Nation doing evil or good? How can one side see it as good while another sees it as evil? There is no good or evil to this world. There is only action and reaction. Do you know what will happen when this is written, Aang?"

"No."

"History will see this as bloodshed, yes. But they will see it through the eyes of those wrote it, that being the victor. History is nothing but a lie written by the victor of a battle."

"So you're telling me the Avatar's are liars as well?" He looked smug with what he said. Lyra smiled and his smiled fell as he turned away. "If history is written by the victor, then history is filled with nothing but liars. Which means that…"

"History will see the war, should the Fire Nation win, as a good thing." Sokka whispered with wide eyes. "We can't allow that happen! The Fire Nation is evil!"

"No they're not." Naruto countered. "There people believe that they are trying to share their greatness with the world, a greatness we can't accept or understand. They see it as something good and pure. We see it as something evil and unjust."

"But this world isn't twisted like you say it is!" Aang turned away from the fighting. He couldn't watch this anymore. He couldn't accept this. This was wrong and he knew it. His time with the monks told him that his way of seeing the world was correct in every way. But his instinct told him otherwise. _It's not twisted. _

(-)

Zentrai dispatched the last of the men and looked back at Jet's prone body. He lost count of the amount of agents he had put down some time ago. Now the only thing on his mind was getting Jet to a spot where he could be buried and found so he could be mourned by those loyal to him. He knew of a location already, but it would be difficult to move him to without his body rotting away. He wanted to take him back to his village in the trees where he had been fighting the Fire Nation for so long.

He moved swiftly to his side and knelt down.

Smellerbee looked up with tears in her eyes. She smiled but it fell quickly. Zentrai put a calming hand on the side of her face and slowly moved to grab Jet.

The ground thundered and he flung Jet's lifeless body to the side while shoving Smellerbee as well. He jumped to the side, rolled, and sprang back up to his feet. He hadn't detected the person till they were within striking range. He wondered on how he missed the man, but he understood it soon enough when he recognized the handiwork of Long Feng and his agents.

The behemoth of a man that stood before him was already dead to the world. His mind was practically made of mush as far as Zentrai could see. He had no thoughts, not even subconscious thoughts. He moved sluggishly, but still rather fast for someone as big as he was. The man, or monster, stood at least three meters tall with a girth so big that Zentrai found it hard to believe he could fit through any of the exits or entrances in the base it had just come out of.

Its face and skin was a mask of thick metal. Zentrai couldn't even believe that he carried as much armor as he did. Just looking at it made him wonder how he accomplished such a task. It had to be at least three or four inches thick and somehow managed to cover every inch of his body. No visible joints were available to him, meaning it had either been bolted to his flesh and worked in such a way that it presented no openings, or it was made over him like a suit of armor that he could easily get out of. Zentrai tried reading his mind but he failed. There was truly nothing on his mind, let alone anything for him to use.

Zentrai snorted and brought both hands out front, fingers spread wide. He pulled them back and slapped his arms together. His million fragmented blades responded and rushed into the metal man. They clattered against his armor and drowned him in a sea of blades. Zentrai couldn't sense the man or see him. He pulled them back and stared in shock as the man began stepping towards him.

He grunted and moved forward. The metal man swung a fist for his face. Zentrai jumped over him, one hand placed on his back as he used his hulking frame to push off him and gain some distance. The man turned and looked at him before thundering towards him. The ground rumbled with each step he took. Zentrai took a hesitant step back and gripped one of his weapons that lay stuck in the ground. He moved with liquid grace and dragged the weapon along his enemies' metal chest with no sign of a scratch.

He grunted to turn and face the teen. Zentrai presented his sword as a result and lunged at the man. He waved one hand and nearly took Zentrai's head off as a result. Zentrai barely ducked under it. He jumped and rolled, tucking tightly into a ball as a result and sprang back to his feet with lightning grace. He turned, presenting his weapon again. The man turned and chuckled through his armor. Zentrai stared at him, trying to understand how he could see him through the metal that covered his entire body.

The metal monster chuckled and thundered towards him. Zentrai growled and charged him. He jumped to the side while swinging his weapon. It clattered against his armored chest without leaving a scratch. He twisted and spun to face him as the man sluggishly came to a stop and turned to face them. He presented an opening and Zentrai rushed forward to take it. The man grinned and reached up as Zentrai jumped into the air.

The mute swung and cursed his fate as the man caught him around his waist and threw him into the ground. Zentrai struggled to stand and was stepped on by the man. He howled in pain, his cries something distorted between an animal crying out a baby before it could speak. The sound was deafening. Zentrai stopped screaming though and grabbed his weapon. He stabbed it into the armored man's metal chest without breaking it.

His weapon was battered away and left him without anything to fight with. His mind struggled to find a solution before desperation kicked in. He reached up, grabbing hold of the knee and grunted as he attempted to warp the metal. It crunched together and the man waited five seconds before screaming as a loud snap sounded. His leg was crushed at the knee with tiny blades jetting out of either side.

The man staggered back screaming until he fell over. Zentrai got up, cracking his back as he did and walked over to the man. Even as he lay on the ground he was just as tall as Zentrai. It was amazing actually, in his mind anyways, that a man could truly be so big that even as he lay on the ground he was a big as Zentrai was tall. He shoved it from his mind and grabbed him by his face. The man screamed as he felt the helmet he wore begin to constrict around his head.

Zentrai didn't connect with his mind as he began crushing his skull. There was no point. His thoughts were empty and bleak. The metal warped and caved in on his face until it jetted out the back of his skull, turning into a small blade with bits of blood, brain and skull matter on the edges of it. The rest of his armor did the same, jetting out chunks of meat and bone as his own armor turned into an iron maiden. To his credit, the brute remained alive for another minute before death seeming to take him.

Zentrai out of rage added one last blow as he moved into a ridged stance and made joint hand movement that pushed forward and then back. The armor in turn shifted as the spikes that had become the man's iron maiden into a grim reminder of his death and a message for Long Feng. His blood seeped out of the broken suit and stained the ground. No doubt he was a special agent of Long Feng, but he was clearly not one that he used more often than the others. Still, he was happy to destroy whatever the man seemed to cherish.

With the battle over, Zentrai turned back to where Jet now lay as Smellerbee picked him up and slung him onto her slender frame. Zentrai moved to her side, picking up as he did, and pulled his weapons together. They fit snuggly back into the weapon holder and he pulled it to his back. Snapping them in place, he turned his attention to the cliff and said, _"Come. It's over. We must find a place to bury our fallen comrade." _

Again he wished he could speak like a normal person. He could convey his feelings and emotions to others with waves, but not words. Expressing them with his thoughts was hard and nearly impossible. He had to rely on sending them feelings and what not.

(-)

Jet was buried on a small island in the middle of the lake. He would be remembered by them and his existence wouldn't vanish. Prior to be buried, Naruto ordered that Zentrai take in every detail of the teen's face. What Zentrai could do would enable an artist to draw him and make a portrait for them to put at the memorial stone. He would be remembered forever as a hero. Jet would never be forgotten by any of them.

A/N

Okay there's a bunch of things we need to cover. First and foremost is that there were a lot more Dai Li agents this go around than in canon. We needed more because we have three master assassins there to help in fighting them. Naruto and Zentrai are both very powerful people, something that has been shown throughout this entire fic so far. The actual number would have been easily taken down a lot quicker than what was put here in this chapter.

Zentrai's special blades, all together, weigh about fifty pounds when they're bunched up. They are very sharp and deadly. Think of those cheap razor blades floating in the air and you get the picture.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

A/N

This is a heads up for everyone. We're actually going to skip the episode Tales of Ba Sing Se because we have no need for it. Yeah it was a great episode, don't get me wrong, but we couldn't think of a way to actually use it or even truly create something for Naruto, Zentrai and Lyra without having it involve a battle of some kind. So we're skipping it. Sorry if you wanted it.

Chapter 16

By the time Naruto had finally calmed Lyra down, as she too was effected by the death of Jet, the teens had all grouped together to celebrate and plan their next move with the aid of Appa. Aang and his gang were near the coast, as they didn't want to be at the gravesite of their friend. Katara had cried a bit too much as a result and couldn't stand being near his grave without the threat of crying. Sokka had paid his respects and simply walked away with Toph while Aang had remained for a brief moment before returning with them.

Now that things were said and done they truly did need to plan their next move.

"Look… We escaped from the Dai Li. Got Appa back. I'm telling you we should go to the Earth King and tell him our plan," Sokka told the others. "We're on a roll."

"One good hour after weeks of trouble isn't much of a roll," Katara pointed out.

"We can build on it! If we wanna invade the Fire Nation when the eclipse happens, we need the Earth King's support!"

"What makes you think we'll get it," Toph asked. "I don't know if you've noticed, but things don't usually go that smoothly for our little gang."

"I know, but I've got a good feeling about this. This time will be different."

"Sokka," Katara sighed. "Long Feng is in control of the city. His conspiracy with the Dai Li is too powerful. I think we should just keep flying and leave this horrible place behind."

Toph nodded while saying, "I'm with sweetness. I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se. And I can't even see!"

Aang fly down on them while saying, "But now that we have Appa back, there's nothing stopping us from telling the Earth King the truth… About the conspiracy and the war."

"See! Aang's with me." He hugged the young Avatar with a big smile. "It's the whole reason we came here in the first place. We have to try."

"Well… I guess if the Earth King knew the truth things could change." Katara rubbed her chin in thought while continuing to think about that. The idea sounded solid enough, but as Toph had stated, they never had the best of luck.

The young Earthbender got to her feet, her brows nearly stitched together as she said, "I don't trust the new positive Sokka. Long Feng brainwashed you, didn't he?" She pointed a finger at him. The group considered that for a moment before brushing it aside.

Lyra, who had been silently watching them, turned her attention to the lake and said, "Dai Li boats. I count three of them. Search parties most likely." The group of teens turned to acknowledge the three boats. They were quite a good distance away, but if they had telescopes they could easily spot them. "We don't have a lot of options left. I'm for Sokka's idea… though I doubt my vote carries that much weight."

Naruto stepped out of the thick trees with a snort. "Whatever we're going to do, we need to do it fast," he announced. Zentrai stormed out, both arms twitching with blood oozing down his fingers. On his sides were Jet's twin hook swords, something he obviously took. Katara said nothing to that, but Naruto said, "I already told Zentrai he can't kill Long Feng. He's too valuable at the moment. He knows more than he lets on, and if we kill the King's advisor, things will go downhill very quickly. I'm personally for Sokka's idea only because it is the main reason we came here."

"We'll need a strategy though," Katara informed them.

"Why would you assume that?" Sokka looked confused until he noticed that Zentrai seemed to get unhappy with stupid questions.

"Long Feng will have probably rushed to the Kings' side in case we try and speak with him," Lyra informed them. "If he's done that, which I'm willing to bet my one arm he has, we'll be faced with the Royal Earthbending Guards. They're not very good from what I can gather, but they are a threat. They have high numbers and are very gutsy. The only flaw with them is that they haven't seen actual combat yet. That could be our only good thing out of all this."

The teens didn't seem too thrilled about heading off for another fight, but as Katara looked out to the lake again, she suddenly declared, "Let's fly."

Naruto smiled. "I'll run on the water. Zentrai and Lyra, you two ride Appa all the way to the shore. When you get over land, drop down and we'll run on ahead and clear out as much resistance as we can. We'll lighten them up for you if they wanna fight us." Aang saw no problem with that, but the boat was still a small threat. Naruto turned to face it as Shibaru and Rai appeared at his side. "Stay close to me, you two. And no killing anything that ain't Dai Li. Understood?" They gave curt nods.

The teens mounted their rides while Naruto walked out onto the water. Without a saddle, bareback was the only option. Of course Lyra, Zentrai, Aang, Sokka, and Katara didn't complain. But Toph was another story. Naruto listened to her screams of fear as they soared through the air.

_Sure am happy I'm not up there with them, _the blond thought as he started running across the water. Shibaru and Rai vanished into the ground and appeared on the otherside of the lake.

(-)

Long Feng predicted this as the first real option they'd take. He had nothing to hold over their heads and they had learned the location of his secret headquarters. Supposing the teens could battle their way through nearly three battalions of Royal Earthbenders, he highly doubted they'd get inside the palace. But even wasn't about to call the stops there. No. He planned on them getting through. He ordered all of the Royal Earthbending Guards to be on high alert combat status. Anything out of the ordinary was to be taken down no matter what.

But as he watched them move into position, he began to wonder if it would be enough. They did have Naruto and Zentrai with them. They were feared assassins. How could anyone stand against them? He even heard a rumor the two had single handedly taken out the Fire Nation's version of Ba Sing Se, one of their heavily fortified strongholds. He didn't know why they took it, but he knew they took it. That was saying something considering that they had to fight ten battalions as the rumors went. He wasn't sure if that was the correct number, but he wasn't about to doubt it.

He maneuvered himself beside the King, Kuei, and whispered, "Your Majesty, an attack on your life is about to happen. I highly recommend you move to a safe location."

Kuei, a man well in his thirties, maybe even a little younger, gave his advisor a nervous look. "Are you sure?"

Long Feng grinned mentally. His Dai Li agents were stationed at the foot of his throne and were ready to act on a moment's notice. _How long, _he wondered, _have I been looking after him? _He had long forgotten the amount of time he'd put into this. It seemed so long ago that he started manipulating him. He never expected he'd get this far with the way his family had been. Poor and unforgiving. He had to crawl, backstab, and gamble everything just to get this powerful.

"Yes. I've already had the military get into position to take care of the threat. We need to move you down to the secure bunker where you'll be safe." He spoke with a calming voice that he had used to nurture him when he was four. _That's right, _he remembered. _I've been doing this since he was four. _

Kuei looked away for a moment, considering this. He shook his head. "No. If they are here to attack me, then they might know about the secret bunker. I will remain where I am. I have faith in my Royal Earthbending Guards." Long Feng scowled mentally, but said nothing. The King's orders were strict, even for him right now. Disobeying them openly would result in bad things. He had to play this carefully and trust in the Royal Earthbending Guards just this once.

_But will they be enough? _

(-)

"Trash… Garbage… Not pretty enough," Reaper sounded off as she scrolled through the list of possible replacements. She was currently resting in her room and looking over the list with Hawkeye. Both females were rather tired, but they knew they needed a replacement in order to start taking missions again. She had to work with two other girls, Hawkeye being one of them. This is what she was trying to find: a second teammate.

Hawkeye glanced up from her set of scrolls and arched a brow. Without the rest of her gear on and just a simple shirt and pants, it was easy to tell that she was missing her left breast to match for her bow skills. She had cut it off early on in her training since she was one of the few archers to be female and because she had a rather large bust that had kept getting in the way. Eventually she just cut it off for two reasons. The first was that it was annoying and the second was because everyone that ever noticed it asked questions about it. Mostly the guys asked the question, which always touched a smile to her face.

And of course there was only one place to do something like this. They were in Reaper's very own room. It wasn't what anyone truly expected to be honest with her skill set and job. Her room was painted pink. But that was where the strange things ended for her. Everything else the decorated her room were skulls that she marked as her trophies, rusty weapons she had long since stopped using, and of course the all important workstation where she drew up ideas for her next ridicules set of armor made from human or animal bones. The woman was a little crazy.

"You can't just go around saying things like that," Hawkeye whispered to her. Her quiet voice reached her and she gave her a childlike expression of confusion. Hawkeye sighed explosively for getting teamed up with a person like her. "We need a third member. Some of these people aren't what we usually have, but Jenny was actually a good healer for our group until she died. We could use another healer."

"And what makes you think we need a healer?"

To answer this, the archer leaned over and pocked her in the side. Reaper hissed in anger and pain as her finger was buried to the first knuckle into her flesh. The wounds she had taken from their last little mission hadn't fully healed. But that had been only a few days ago when they needed to get some Intel for the other assassins.

"I see your point," she sighed out. Hawkeye smiled softly but soon frowned knowing what was next. "But I refuse to have a fat or ugly female healer on my team. I'm not slowing down for someone either. I want someone that's fast, strong, swift, and brave. Someone that I can easily rely on without having to worry about protecting them or anything else. I want someone that will look up to me as a leader as well, like what you and Sparky do."

"I don't exactly look up to you," Hawkeye grumbled. Reaper blinked again and she sighed. "Listen," she said quickly. "How about you let me handle this? I did a good job when Sparky passed all the training régime and we let her join. She did pretty well with us. Now let me choose the replacement, because, in all honestly, you know you forget about letting her join when I told her to join up with us instead of Setsuna's team. Can you let me do that?"

Reaper eyed her strangely for a moment as cracked her neck. Devoid of any of her clothing say for a thin shirt and pants, it was easy to see the Raven tattoo she had on her shoulder. It looked like a bit of a serpent trying to eat it own tail, but instead the tail was longer and the eyes were dark green with its mouth opened as if to devour the tail. She rubbed it for a moment and then nodded.

"Fine. But this person you select better be able to stay up with us. I'm not busting my ass to haul some loser around." She got up, grabbing her weapon of choice as she did, and strolled out of her room.

Hawkeye smiled and when the coast was clear, pulled out a small scroll. It was one that she'd been saving for quite awhile actually. He was sort of like her hero actually. She unrolled it and looked at the name of the operative she wanted to pull into their little group. "Ghost, the Stand Alone Assassin," she whispered the name and rolled it up.

He, like Reaper, Naruto, Zentrai and Blindside, was a member of the top Ten Ranked Assassins. He ranked in at number ten, but that was because of how he worked and because he'd been demoted so many times for insubordination and other things. The only reason he remained in the top ten was because the top ten were like Generals for their military. And with that came a lot of power. In all actuality he was ranked as the number six, but he'd been recently busted down to Rank Ten for not knowing when to shut up.

_Time to go find Ghost. _

(-)

Commander Lash had never been good with giving out orders. If he were truthful, he was a scared little man that feared just about everything. It was part of the reason why he joined the Royal Earthbending Guards for the palace. They never saw actual combat unless it was just training. And if he were to be even more truthful with himself, this wasn't even his idea of a job in the first place. His father, great grandfather, and great-great grandfather had all worked as a member of the Royal Earthbending Guards and after making his way through various jobs and being a truly capable bender, he was enlisted here by order of his father who had passed away some time ago.

The way things worked actually sucked in his opinion anyways. Sure he was good at running small teams against one another in combat practice, but those teams were small, nimble, and most certainly not a large battalion with so many things to take care of. And there was no real threat of death unless someone really screwed up big time. His father had been a commander and that was the only reason he got to where he was today. People looked at his father's reputation and just decided he was fit for the job.

He wasn't fit for this and he knew it.

But orders were orders and he had to follow them. Though he wished the actual commander, or at least in his mind anyways, was giving out the orders. In his mind, his second in command, Ho, should be in charge of the situation. That man had more experience in leading teams than he ever did. And the only reason he didn't take the spot away from his was because he was lazy. He liked his position because he never had to truly do anything because Lash always did it. It wasn't pretty, but it was better than giving out orders in his mind.

_Paying bills is more entertaining than this, _he thought. He turned back and looked at the massive set of soldiers. They all looked the same in their armor of black and white. He was colorblind so he had no idea what they're real colors were, but he knew they weren't black and white. It just made him feel better to not know everything, even something like that. Who else would wear something as ridicules as this?

He looked straight up at the sky. According to the information provided by Long Feng, a flying creature would probably appear and they were to take it out by any means necessary. He was also informed of three assassins that would probably make an appearance. He didn't know anything about them, but assassins weren't people to fight up front. No. Assassins were people that fought from the shadows and were considered sneak-thieves if at anything in his book.

"Sir," Ho spoke up. Lash turned his attention towards his second in command and watched him point out something in the distance. He had to squint to see it and when he did he raised a thin brow. "Those must be the assassins Long Feng mentioned." Ho took a moment to consider their options and then said, "They're up to something. They're just a distraction to lure us away from something else. No assassin would fight like this. They attack from behind and in the shadows, not up front for us to see."

Lash eyed them though. Long Feng said not to take anyone or anything lightly. If these assassins were feared, then they had a reason. He surveyed his troops one last time and then looked over the three assassins that were making their approach to them.

"Send in the mobile infantry first," he ordered.

The Mobile Infantry weren't benders, but they were skilled fighters that used lances as their primary weapons. They were small and nimble people that had developed an odd taste of weaponry and were often see as a bit crazy, but they were skilled fighters. The downside to them of this was that they were like them in the fact that they were also never called upon for war.

A hundred men moved up front, spears and lances in hand, and with grins on their faces as they watched the three fighters move towards them.

Lash still wasn't certain about this. To his second in command he whispered, "Monitor the skies for any sign of something heading out way. Long Feng believes that something will be flying down on us shortly." Ho nodded and relayed the orders to the S.A.R (Surface to Air Rocks) to keep an eye out for anything heading their way. Lash kept his gaze on the assassins as they stopped just out of range of his Earthbending attacks. The Mobile Infantry would be forced to come to them. He knew they would close the gap and attack without thinking.

(-)

Naruto stared down the opposition with a smile. They had no idea on just who they were about to be dealing with. If they didn't need them for the war they'd slaughter them plan and simple. But they did need them and they were very valuable for the war effort. So they couldn't kill them, but that didn't limit them or hinder them in the slightest. Naruto knew that his two teammates could in fact fight without taking life.

The three assassins watched the fighters move towards in a tight and fast group. They were a bit clustered together, but that was to hide the real threat: The Earthbenders.

Zentrai removed Jet's two hook swords from his side while Naruto clenched and unclenched his hands in anticipation. Lyra remained calm and fully in control. She was in the middle.

"Let's go," she ordered.

The two males rushed forward and jumped on the two closest attackers while Lyra bent the earth beneath a dozen more, sinking them to their elbows. Naruto captured one of their weapons and turned it against the owner by taking his feet out from under him before slamming butt of it down into his head. It didn't kill him, just knocked him out. He snapped the blade off and started using it against the Mobile Infantry.

Zentrai moved with liquid grace as he knocked out soldiers and pinned them to the ground. He cut his way through their ranks. He gave them credit for fighting them like they were. They knew they were losing, but they still fought back with determination that was undeterred. He could respect that.

In short order the men were all brought down without killing any of them. The three assassins had no injuries to show for the fight either, something that they were very proud of. It also confirmed that these guys weren't very experienced in the art of combat like most Earthbenders or even the other Infantry Divisions were capable of.

They checked to make sure the men were all down and wouldn't get up any time soon before moving on. Naruto took point and started his charge.

Giant rocks flew through the air leaving a trail of dust and debris that rained down on the three. Naruto came to a stop and watched it soar overhead before noticing what they were aiming at. Aang was now here on Appa with the others. The blond growled and turned to the others. They knew what he wanted. They both gave nods and he dropped back behind them. Lyra and Zentrai surged forward with hastening speed and lured the attention of the benders towards them.

Naruto veered off to the side and began running as fast as he could. A plume of dust followed him in his wake as he made his way to the S. and their operators. He cleared a small trench that separated him from them and brought his fist down on the first giant slab of earth before it could be fired off. The three men that were manning that area quickly backpedaled only to be knocked unconscious by the teen in quick succession.

Naruto turned and moved to the next one without stopping to rest. He ran fast and tackled the bender before he could launch the next one, halting the process of throwing it into the air. He slammed him into the ground, rolled with him, righted himself, and punched him hard in the face to knock him out. Naruto didn't have a chance to catch his breath. He moved to the side, jumped, rolled, sprang up, and repeated the process to the two helpers.

Naruto paused and looked at the chaos they were causing when a loud bang echoed to his side. Aang and the others had struck the ground. A giant mound had formed from whatever bending attack he had used, rendering most of the benders unconscious as a result. Naruto whistled as he watched him and his team advanced down the narrowed path. Clearly he had underestimated them.

(-)

Long Feng heard the sounds of fighting before it truly even started. He more or less had predicted this outcome. And to make it worse, he knew that Kuei wouldn't want to leave his throne room. He wanted to stay where he, believing in the reason that he could speak with them and get them to stop. A foolish idea on his part if they were a real threat to his life, but Long Feng knew that they weren't. For once he had wished he had just told him about the war and told them that they were Fire Nation assassins that had come to kill him and take his throne.

_No, _he thought quickly. He looked out the window and watched the fighting. Things were moving too fast for him to stop. The Earthbenders were being pushed back took quickly. "Move out and protect the King," he said sharply. Ten Dai Li agents appeared from the shadows and nodded. "I want the rest of you to try and lure the assassins away. Without them, the Avatar will be easier to stop." Twenty Dai Li agents nodded and moved quickly to the shadows. _I have to return to Kuei and see if I can get him to leave for the hidden bunker. _

(-)

Lyra and Zentrai move through the masses with ease. Any bender that got in their way was quickly brought down by the two without much fuss. The two were a wrecking crew on a path of destruction. They had also split up from Aang's group. Naruto was taking care of him by being at his side and dealing with anything that they couldn't.

The two moved up into a large section of the building and started taking out the other benders that were trying to rain down death on the others. They were doing a horrible job at hitting them. Lyra calmly moved up to them and knocked them all down into the earth while Zentrai moved and delivered quick and sharp blows that rendered them unconscious.

The Royal Earthbenders realized that they were under attack and turned to engage them. A dozen turned to face the new threat and were quickly outmatched by the two assassins.

Zentrai palmed one man in the gut, another in the side of the head, and a third in the chest. They dropped like rocks and he was left shaking his head. Before he could catch his breath, the ground shifted slightly and he jumped before the earth could rise to hit him. He hit the ground, rolled, sprang to his feet, and snarled as he looked at the twenty Dai Li agents that stood as though nothing were wrong with the world or this fight at the moment.

Lyra moved to his side as the last of the Royal Earthbending Guards were dealt with.

"Zentrai, don't kill them," Lyra ordered.

"_Nuts to that," _he replied through the mental link. Blades flew through the air and gutted one of them as the others raised the earth and flew to the next floor. Zentrai snarled at them and followed with Lyra following after him, screaming for him to obey a direct order. He didn't listen and threw a dozen blades into their lifts so he could jump up to greet them.

The mute jumped off each blade and landed directly in front of the group. They didn't seem frightened and their thoughts were devoid of anything but the will to complete the mission. He cracked his neck and looked to the closest one. It had a scar across its cheek and was the only one that seemed a little afraid at the moment. Lyra appeared and gave them all a sharp glance.

"Where's Long Feng," she asked. They remained quiet. "Don't kill them."

"_Rather not," _he replied. She snorted and stepped back.

The mute moved with liquid grace and got close to the first Dai Li agent. With fluid motions he palmed him in the chest, hurling him backwards, spun, and kicked another in the face. They couldn't bend the floor because they were just Cultural Protectors and Secret Police of Ba Sing Se. But more to the point, the floor wasn't thick enough for real Earthbending like what they needed.

Zentrai moved hastily to the next one, delivering a painful backhanded blow to one of the Dai Li, knocking him back a bit. He halted his momentum by using his Earthbending to slow himself and then surged forward. He hastily sent a palm thrust for the teen. Zentrai reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulled it over his head and snapped a knee up into his face. His head jerked back and his nose broke from the blow. The mute slung the man into the ground and jumped back as two pillars of earth snapped down for him.

The two that had bent the pillar of earth dropped down and moved towards him. The mute spun down low and brought the legs out from under them. The collapsed in a heap, rolled away, and sprang back to their feet. Zentrai charged them and delivered a bone jarring punch to the face of the closest one. He spun and Zentrai turned his focus on the other one. He worked fast, pummeling him with quick jabs in the chest and face before kneeing him in the chest.

The man was launched into the air. The Magnetism-Bender reached out, grabbing him by his ankle, brought one fist back, and pounded his chest in with one punch. The man was sent skidding backwards holding his chest. The mute smiled as he raised one leg high in the air. He brought it down between the man's legs earning a satisfying scream of pain from him. No matter how badass a guy was, they were still a guy and Zentrai had yet to meet a man that could take a blow to his balls without screaming. Not even Naruto could do it.

The man tried to roll over while holding himself, but the mute held fast and pulled him back up to him to deliver the knockout blow to his face. The man was smashed back into the ground where blood splattered the white stone floor.

The mute turned, jumped, rolled, and then sprang to his feet as he charged another man. He punched this one as hard as he could in the face, spinning him around. He corrected his stance, turned to attack, and was greeted by the heel of the angry teen. He fell on his ass, skidded back by use of his bending, and got back to his feet. He wished he could bend the floor, but it was too thin to do any real damage to the teen like what they needed. And the roof was also nearly out of the option as well. Only certain parts could be used.

Two moved to flank the angry teen and were stopped cold by thin metal blades that flew into the back of their skulls. They didn't cry. They just crumpled in a heap.

"You're taking this a bit too far," Lyra called out. Zentrai looked over his shoulder, raised a hand to stop the fist of one Dai Li agent, and glared at her. "I'm just saying…"

"_Too much is never enough," _he replied so everyone could hear him. The Dai Li froze for a moment and took a step back in fear. Images of a man flashed through their minds for a brief moment, giving Zentrai the image of a teen in his twenties with no finer details. The teen turned to face the one Dai Li that held the image in his head for more than two seconds and read his mind. The image wasn't perfect, but a man with dark brown hair and tanned skin materialized for a moment before fading. _What was that about? _

He twisted the fist of the Dai Li agent he held and broke his arm in three places. He cried and Zentrai slammed his fingers through his throat. Blood splashed the ground and his face. The mute didn't care about the blood stains. He just wanted revenge.

He pushed the man back and kicked one leg out behind him. His foot made contact with a solid face and knocked the man backwards through the air. He seemed to float for a moment before pulling himself towards the closest wall. He stuff and brought out a pillar of earth. It moved fast and slammed into the ground where the mute was standing. Dust obscured his view of the teen for a fraction of a second then darkness touched the side of his vision. He blinked, turned, and then was consumed by it.

Lyra closed his fist and the coffin was complete. She had incased the lone bender in a coffin made of earth to keep him from fighting back. He'd get out, but that wasn't the point. The point was to terrify him.

The coffin shuddered and broke. The lone Dai Li agent emerged with his eyes narrowed on the one armed teen. She smiled at him and pointed in another direction. He looked on instinct and jumped off the pillar. He wasn't fast enough and got nicked in the side by Zentrai's floating blades. He hit the ground, rolled while clutching his side and bent the earth from the floor in his direction.

Zentrai moved to the side, dropped back behind the pillar the man had thrown his way, and waited. The ground shook and the floor began to crack. He smiled. Bringing down the house was always fun as a term when he was younger and into parties with a lot of women, but now he'd get to do it.

He jumped over the cover, rolled, and began running full out. His weapons danced at his side, appearing, shimmering as they moved to become invisible through forced illusions, and spun to block all incoming projectiles from the Dai Li agents. The mute closed the distance and shoulder tackled the bender. He skidded briefly. He stopped. He looked up at the mute and watched as he appeared in two places for a brief moment before darkness consumed him.

The two halves of the body hit the floor and Zentrai turned to the remaining men. Not a lot were left, but enough to tide him over until he could _hit _Long Feng. That was how Naruto got him under control. He promised him that he could only hit him, not a lethal blow, but hit him. What Naruto didn't know was that Zentrai knew how to hit someone and make them suffer a slow and very painful death that would also cause heart problems. Or so he hoped Naruto didn't know.

"_Leave the rest to me," _he said to Lyra. She stiffened for a moment. Only nine were actually left and they looked ready to fight and win. She stepped back and watched him run towards the men.

They brought up small tiles of earth and shot them at him. They spun like flying shurikens and came awfully close to cutting his head off. Zentrai got in close to two. He kicked one in the face, knocking him back just enough for him to pound on the other. He brought one fist into the side of his face, breaking his jaw almost and spinning him around. The Dai Li agent used the motion and snapped a kick out. Zentrai caught it, brought the leg in close and hammered it three times with his balled up fist. The crunch of bones breaking sounded over the Dai Li agents' cries of pain before Zentrai twisted the leg and nearly tore it from his hip.

He dropped him, stepped on his throat, crushing his windpipe, and ran towards the next group. Two moved as one and raised thin sheets of earth from the floor. It groaned from all the fighting but no one cared. They fired their small blades of earth at the teen. His weapons moved and intercepted their attack, forming a phalanx between him and the debris. They continued to fire until he was on them. They jumped to the side, rose up, and fired dozens more at him. His weapons circled him, spinning rapidly around his form to protect him.

They swore and brought dozens of pillars down on him. The dust obscured him from view for only a brief moment. The dust from their attack swirled and dissipated into nothing, revealing Zentrai with fifty weapons all spinning around his form. Twenty of them were assigned to cutting down the pillars that had very nearly crushed him. They gave him a hard look and surged forward to greet him in combat.

Zentrai raised one hand and the weapons dropped to the ground. A glittering light flooded their vision and then the two dropped. Zentrai turned and raised a hand towards the remaining six. They looked stunned for a moment as the tiny blades formed before them and took the appearance of a long blade. _"I don't have much control of this. It's new to me and I haven't mastered it yet. But I am learning." _The Dai Li agents took a step back as the blade wormed its way over his hand and arm, ending at his elbow.

The blades fit tightly to his arm and turned into a long blade that made his arm look like a metal blade. He swung it once to test it and shook his head. They moved in for the attack and the mute swung it again. The blade fanned into dozens of tiny blades and he fired them without hesitation. The Dai Li agents were too close to evade and took the attack squarely in the face. They all dropped and skidded to a halt at his feet. The mute shook his head.

The weapon broke into tiny blades and surged into his pouch on the small of his back. His others weapons jumped into his weapon cache and snapped back into place on his back. _"Still don't have that down yet," _he grumbled.

He looked at his arm and noticed it was covered with thin cuts. Lyra was hastily at his side and looking at his arm. "How'd you do that?" She pulled out some bandages and quickly wrapped his arm up. He flexed his hand when she finished and smiled at her. "You've never done something like that. How'd you do it?"

"_When we went to the Library in the desert, Wong Shi Tong actually had a few scrolls on techniques for my people. It's hard to master, but it's one of the newer attacks I'm studying on. It's like how Earthbenders can incase themselves in earth and still fight, but it turns into a blade or a thin sheet of armor if used properly." _The floor groaned and they dropped an inch. The two looked around and noticed that the place had caved in a bit. _"Well…" _

The floor gave away and they dropped. Zentrai didn't bother screaming. Lyra screamed in fright to this and cried when they hit the ground after a four second fall. Zentrai groaned as he got out of the rubble and noticed Aang, Naruto, Katara, Sokka, and Toph looking up at him with Appa growling his greeting to them.

"Nice of you drop in," Naruto comically said. Lyra groaned as she dusted her butt off while Zentrai looked back to check her ass out. "Did you enjoy yourselves up top?"

"_Totally… I got to bring the house down. What more could I ask for?" _The mute dropped down from the pile of rubble and moved over to the others. _"How have you guys been? Did you miss us?" _

"Not really," Toph announced with some humor in her voice. She felt Sokka climb up onto the pile of rubble and said, "Well now what?"

"Now that's an impressive door," Sokka proclaimed. He pointed to a large door that was quite beautiful. "It's gotta go somewhere." He rushed it and flew through the air, performing a flying kick. His small body and lack of real weight did nothing to the thing. He simply hit it and fell to the ground with a thud. Groaning, he got up and tried to shove it open only for Toph and Aang to come up behind him and blast it. Sokka flew through the air with the door pieces flying in either direction. He crumbled to the ground, rose up and said, "A little warning next time."

They moved fast and were soon in front of the Earth King. Naruto marveled at the elegance of his throne chair. It was carved out of earth and made to look like a Badger-Mol, the original Earthbenders. Naruto hadn't truly seen one as of yet, up close anyways, but to him it was life like and nearly the same size as one. It was quite a unique chair, even in his eyes.

The teens raised their choice of weapons, Naruto opting to lower his arms like Zentrai and Lyra did as Long Feng appeared. He seemed quite terrified by their presence. Then again, they were about to pull the curtain down around his head and possible kick him into a deep hole if they could actually talk with the Earth King.

"We need to talk to you," Aang shouted.

Long Feng turned to Kuei, a young man that looked either in his early thirties to late thirties, and said, "They're here to overthrow you."

"No! We're on your side. We're here to help," Sokka shouted.

"You have to trust us!" Katara added.

Kuei arched a brow as he rose up from his throne and said, "You invade my palace. Lay waste to all my guards. Break down my fancy door. And you expect me to trust you?"

Naruto laughed inwardly as Lyra and Toph said, "He has a good point." The rest of the roof from the other room caved in, causing everyone to look back for a moment before Lyra raised a hand and said, "I take full blame for that. I couldn't keep stupid over here on a short enough leash." To make a point and because he wanted to humiliate Long Feng as much as possible, Zentrai began mock barking, something he could do. Lyra reached over and patted him on the head. "Good boy. Now play dead."

"If you are on my side then drop your weapons and stand down."

The teens all dropped their weapons while Naruto turned and gave a warning glare to Zentrai. The mute fell face-first into the ground and let out a mental laugh to the others. Naruto palmed his face while the others took a quick glance at the mute. "Zentrai," Naruto moaned while pinching the bridge of his nose. "Get off the floor."

The mute shook his head, forcing Lyra to say, "He is a living weapon. He can kill with his bare hands."

That didn't make their situation any better, but Kuei seemed intrigued by this tidbit of knowledge. Aang shook his head and smiled while saying, "See! We're friends, your Eartheness."

Kuei seemed annoyed by this and gave a nod to his advisor. The Dai Li agents threw their rock gloves, pinning everyone's hands behind their back, minus Zentrai of course. He just got pinned to the earth by them. Long Feng gave a smirk of victory for them. He had won and he knew it. "Detain the assailants."

"But we dropped our weapons," Sokka screamed out. "We're your allies!" The Dai Li agents grabbed each teen by their arms, two of them taking extreme care with Naruto of course.

"Make sure that the Avatar and his friends never see daylight again."

"The Avatar?" Kuei looked to Sokka and pointed at him. "You're the Avatar?"

"No." Sokka gestured to Aang with his head. "Him."

Aang broke free of the rock cuffs, something that didn't work on Earthbenders, and said, "Over here." He smiled and reformed the cuffs with ease.

"What does it matter, your highness? They are enemies of the state."

Kuei turned away with a sigh of disappointment. "Perhaps you're right." Bosco, his pet bear, moved directly in front of Aang and licked him with a growl of approval. "Though Bosco seems to like him. I'll hear what he has to say."

Long Feng growled mentally. He was about to lose and he knew it. He made quick motions with his hands and two Dai Li agents slipped past him. This was their backup plan. Destroy the headquarters and everything else that could be linked directly to him. He'd be safe, along with them.

Aang broke free of the two agents that held him and moved to the front of the pack. "Well sir, there's a war going on right now… for the past one hundred years in fact. Dai Li kept it secret from you. It's a conspiracy to control the city and to control you."

"A secret war?! That's crazy!" Kuei rejected the idea of that.

"Completely," his advisor replied. He could already feel his power slipping.

"Long Feng didn't want us to tell you, so he stole our Sky Bison to blackmail us. And blackmail is the less of his crimes. He brainwashed our friend."

Long Feng turned to face the King and said, "All lies. I've never even seen a Sky Bison, your majesty. Frankly, I thought they were extinct."

Kuei shook his head and assumed his spot on the throne. He looked away, marveling at the smooth surface of his chair for a moment. "Your claim is difficult to believe, even from an Avatar."

Long Feng began speaking with him about something. Naruto couldn't hear what he was saying, but he knew it was bad. Zentrai knew what was being said because of how the human brain worked so he wouldn't be left out of the conversation. But judging from what Kuei's expression kept switching between, Naruto knew it was bad and nothing but a lie.

The Earth King shook his head. "I have to trust my advisor," he told them. They all looked at him in total shock. The agents quickly rounded up Aang and began hauling him off with the others.

Sokka struggled for a moment and then forced his way back to the King. "Wait! I can prove his lying!" A moment of shock rippled through Long Feng. How could he prove anything about him lying? "Long Feng said he's never seen a Sky Bison? Ask him to lift up his robe."

Long Feng swore. His leg started hurting again. _The bite mark, _he realized. "What?!" He shouted in fake anger. "I am not disrobing!"

The Earth King gave his advisor a bizarre glance before a blast of wind hit him in the face. When his eyes cleared, he spied Long Feng's robes to be lifted and a large bite mark on his leg just below the knee. It looked sort of bad actually.

"Right there! Appa bit him!" Aang pointed out.

"Never met a Sky Bison, huh?" Sokka had to fight hard to keep from laughing.

The head of the Dai Li brought his robes down with a sigh. "That happens to be a very large birthmark! Thanks for showing it to everyone." He swore. No one would buy that lie.

Kuei looked to the side. "I suppose there's no way to prove where those marks came from."

"Of course there is!" Sokka screamed. He scampered off and a moment later returned with Appa in tow. Bosco growled and moved beside the large bison. Their cuffs removed and Long Feng now being ordered to show the _birthmark, _Kuei was able to see that they were identical, proving that Long Feng had come into contact with the Sky Bison at one point.

"Yep," he announced with a sigh. "That pretty much proves it." The teens broke into a fit of cheers. "But that still doesn't prove this crazy conspiracy." They all sighed. "Though, I suppose this matter's worth looking into." They mulled that one over and considered it to be a good start.

Four Royal Earthbender Guards appeared and gave a quick bow before their King. "We will escort you where you need to go, your majesty." Kuei nodded his thanks and walked out of the main chamber. They stopped at the steps and slowly began to head down them, avoiding all the men that were still being picked up by healers and by those that had survived the onslaught without injury.

"_Wait!" _Naruto sighed. Of course wouldn't pass a chance like this up. _"Before we go, there's just one thing I wanna do." _

**Ten Minutes Later**

"So," Kuei began. He was at the bottom of the steps with Naruto, his four guards still at his side. "Your comrade is a telepath that speaks to people with his mind because he was born a mute. His bending abilities rely heavily on magnetism. And he's a bit of an idiot?"

Naruto looked up the stairs and nodded. "No. He's a complete idiot."

Zentrai was about halfway down the stairs, taking his time and laughing loudly as he watched his own little toy go down the steps. _"Isn't this incredible?! It's gotta be some kind of a record!" _Kuei glanced to the Bloody Inferno, his facial expression telling that he didn't like his way of talking. _"Slinky! Slinky! Everyone loves a slinky! You gotta have a slinky! Slinky! Slinky! Go slinky! Go!" _

"And you're both assassins with Lyra, correct?" Naruto nodded. The Earth King, along with the others that were watching this, shook their heads. "He doesn't seem like the type that could be an assassin, really. He seems too… playful."

"Believe me," Lyra cut in. "He's anything but playful when he's angry. He's only doing this right now because of what some people have done to him as of late. Or more to the point, what the death of a close friend of his did to him."

Zentrai jumped down to the last step and watched as his silver slinky came to a sudden on the very last step. He laughed and threw his head back. _"Oh man! Can you believe it?!" _He grabbed it up and started playing with the thing. _"Can I do it again?" _

"No," Lyra jumped in with a sneer. "We have to be going! If we wait any long, Long Feng might have a chance to hide all the evidence, you retard. Now get down here before I pull out the whip on you!"

As soon as the words left her mouth she knew she was screwed. Zentrai, of course, would use that against her later on. Instead he said, _"Of course! Let's do all the things that _you _wanna do." _He trotted off with Shibaru nipping at his heels. He smiled and said to Lyra, _"Are you a dominatrix?" _She punched him in the face for his words and stormed off popping her hips. _"NICE ASS!" _She didn't react to this.

(-)

Long Feng planned too far ahead for his own good at times. The Dai Li were fully aware of this, mind you, and knew it was sometimes a bad thing. But they did as instructed for the most part. They destroyed all of the entrances to the secret headquarters, leaving only one way in through the mountain. It was risky and they knew it, but the teens had only discovered two ways in and out. They collapsed those first and moved to other areas that they could use.

Once they brought down the entrances and moved to a safe location, Kuei and the teens showed up and had a quick conversation about the destroyed entrance they found, and then moved on. The leader of the gang swore and knew where they'd head next.

"The drill," he said quickly. They held their breaths. They were about to be found out and they knew it. "I'll inform Long Feng." They parted.

(-)

Mai wasn't happy. She was honestly never happy unless doing something that entertained her for a good long while before she found that too to be boring. Of course she wasn't bored at the moment. She was actually having fun, she just wasn't happy about it. She, along with Azula and Ty Lee, had beaten, disrobed, and taken all of the Kyoshi warriors as prisoners some time ago. Of course she was happy when she finally got them out of their clothes, only because they were so colorful that they made her nauseous, but that was before Azula ordered them to get dressed in their clothes and makeup.

Now they were fully dressed to look like Kyoshi Warriors and Mai, not one for being seen in something colorful, was totally sickened by it all.

"Wow," Ty Lee marveled at the inside of the city. Rumors had always gone around the world about what it looked like from the inside, that it was a spectacle worth seeing. They were right in her eyes. The place was large, beautiful, and full of energy. But they were actually in one of the more refined rings of the city where the rich people live. "This place is so amazing!"

Mai rolled her eyes and looked to Azula for a moment. Her markings that Naruto and Zentrai had given her were hidden by a thick layer of makeup and her bangs which she kept down and nearly over her eyes to cover them. She seemed too calm for Mai's liking, but that was to be expected. They were now on the inside of the great Ba Sing Se. Of course she'd need to actually take a breather, take all of this in, and try to figure out a way to bring the city down. That was what she wanted to do.

Still, she did have to answer Ty Lee's statement. "I've seen better," she remarked. Ty Lee gave her a goofy grin but kept her smile up. The train was empty but she still felt like she was being watched by someone or something. She shivered for a moment until she saw Azula looked up as if shocked by something. "Is something the matter?"

"Zentrai and Naruto are here," she remarked strangely. Mai nodded while Ty Lee let her eyes roam over the landscape in search of the blond teen. "If Zentrai can read people's minds, who's to say he can't detect us when we arrive?" Neither had anything to say to that. If he could they'd be killed or kicked out. But that was a good point. "We should stay out of sight for the time being. We'll make our presence known to the Earth King when he's not busy. I have a feeling that he's busy right now though."

Ty Lee turned away and watched the people scurry about moving on with their daily lives. _Yeah… out of sight. _

(-)

Naruto stared over the wall of Ba Sing Se and looked down on the drill.

"_At least it's getting some," _Zentrai said.

Naruto gave him a flat look and dismissed his choice of words. He glanced in the direction of Kuei. He was a wreck and the blond knew it. There was nothing he could say or do for the poor man. He felt betrayed and hurt by what he was seeing. Even after having Aang and Sokka explain what it was and what it had once been used for, Kuei just couldn't seem to believe the situation they were in.

"I can't believe I never knew," Kuei whispered. Naruto felt bad for him and turned back down to the drill. "Thank you for stopping it. All of you." The ground rumbled and Long Feng with two Dai Li agents appeared.

"I can explain this, your majesty." The advisor moved closer to the group and motioned towards it. "This is nothing more than… a construction project."

Katara arched a brow and said, "Really? Then perhaps you could explain why there is a Fire Nation insigne on your construction project?"

Long Feng felt his world go black and everything he earned get stripped away from him. "We'll it's imported of course. You know you can't trust domestic machinery." Kuei gave him a flat look. He wasn't buying this and Long Feng knew it. "Surely you don't believe these children instead of your most loyal attendant?"

Kuei gave the teens a quick glance and considered what they had done for him so far. They had opened his eyes for one thing. He got to go to the outer wall. And he got to ride on Appa! What sort of king get's to do that? He turned back to Long Feng and his two Dai Li agents that stood behind him. His eyes hardened and he said, "Dai Li! Arrest Long Feng. I want him to stand trial for crimes against the Earth Kingdom."

Long Feng was in shock. He was serious and he knew it. His only hope was that the Dai Li didn't arrest him.

Cold metal snapped to his wrests and he was yanked back to the two agents. "You can't arrest me! You will need me more than you know."

"Looks like Long Feng is Long Gone!" Sokka cheered.

Naruto sighed. "At least this madness is over," he grumbled.

"_Madness," _Zentrai ordered. The image of the man the Dai Li agents held appeared in Long Feng's mind for a fraction of a second when he heard Zentrai's voice in his head. The mute moved up to the man, smiled and shouted, _"This is Sparta!" _He kicked him squarely in the chest, knocking him down the hole he had come from. The two Dai Li agents watched him fall and then stared at the mute. _"You want some too?" _They jumped down the hole and vanished.

Naruto approached his friend, slapping him on the back of the head. "What the hell was that about?" The mute just smiled. "Never mind. It's probably better that I don't know."

(-)

Hawkeye had long since given up looking for Ghost. The man lived like his code name. If you wanted to find him, you never could. If he wanted to find you, he always could. The man had connections or a sixth or maybe even a seventh sense that let him know when someone was looking for him or where you were. It was strange to be sure, but he lived like his name. He was a ghost and a man that had earned the title as a Stand Alone Assassin.

That was why Hawkeye admired the man so much. He was a stand alone, a rebel, and an all around total destructive being that had no equal in her eyes. Fan girlish? Probably. Worth it? Definitely. The man won her heart without even knowing it. But for his one good thing about him it sort of was ruined by all the other things about him which was why she honestly wondered why she even wanted the guy on their team or to just be around him. The guy had once taken the scariest and ugliest knife to his ex-girlfriend's wedding just to see what they'd do to him.

So what if he was a little strange, didn't know how to keep his mouth shut, or enjoyed doing the unthinkable. He was worth it for his skills as an assassin. "Sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad," Lyra had once said to her. "Ghost is just a living example that sometimes the best people are often the worst."

Truer words had never been said, but Hawkeye had once thought the same of Zentrai. Hell. They were all a little strange. Everyone had their little quarks that never made sense and Hawkeye was no exception to this.

She stalked her way through the trees, her feet never making a sound as she moved from tree to tree. The idea of being an archer had never pleased her. She was raised by a normal family that was perfectly normal. No _freaks _in her family. All straight people with only farming skills. No combat skills or anything. Just farming skills. And that was why she found her profession and weaponry little strange.

The idea of an archer that was an assassin was that you were God. You had the power to choose who lived and who died. And that was her fix. That was her little quirk that made her a little strange because she got off on it. When you could kill your target or targets while they're sipping tea, reading a scroll, or just relaxing out in the open, you had the power to kill them or let them live for a few extra minutes. And she got off on that.

_Strange as it is though, _she flexed her hand and drew an arrow from her quiver, _I really do hate what I get off on. _She pulled back the bowstring and then sighted down the shaft. She looked to her target, two wild animals. She could barely make them out, but she knew they were native and that they tasted really good. Now came the fun part. She switched between the two, watching them, waiting to see which one would make a move that would make her decide.

She was in her little world again, deciding which one would live and which one would die. She wasn't really sure though. She didn't know if she wanted the big juicy one on the left. Or if she wanted the slick furred one on the right. She switched between the two a dozen times before going for the big juicy one. She loved the meat and the fur would make a great coat or blanket. She tightened on her pull just a bit and let it fly.

The arrow flew straight and true, striking the target dead center in the side. It dug deep through its soft flesh and punctured the heart of the animal. The other animal took off running, its shiny fur catching her eye and making her hand twitch to draw another arrow. She halted and then rose from her crouching spot.

With a smile, she moved towards the dead animal, pulled out a small knife and went to work.

(-)

Naruto stuck around for a few more hours, learning what Long Feng had done during his time as the "True" ruler of Ba Sing Se. The man was very meticulous with his work. He kept files on everyone in the city, even their little gang. Naruto was hardly surprised to know he had nothing on him or his little team. But the others were a different story. Aang had a scroll from a Guru that could help him achieve control over his Avatar State. The scroll had been attached the horn of his Bison. Toph got a letter from her mother who wanted to see her. Katara and Sokka got to read an intelligence report of a fleet of Water Tribe warriors guarding Chameleon Bay that was lead by their father.

Naruto, now clear to leave as promised with Smellerbee and Long Shot, stood at the palace steps with Lyra and Zentrai. "I'll take them to the village and be back as soon as I can. Zentrai, you're in charge of keeping Aang safe from all threats. Lyra, same goes for you." Naruto gave the two a stern look. "As acting Rank Two Assassin, it's my job to speak with Rehka to have all Elite Assassins convey for a meeting on our next move. I'll be back with news on when the meeting will be held."

They gave curt nods while Zentrai seemed to look towards the setting sun.

Lyra stepped forward and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "We'll see you real soon, Naruto." She looked to her companion for a moment and then shrugged. "But we already know that Aang will be heading out to train with the Guru. I'll stay around here just in case I'm needed for something." The blond rolled his eyes. She blushed. "So what if my real intentions are to spend it at the Day Spa. It's not like you have room to complain since you'd spend it training."

"True," the blond agreed. They shared a laugh and then looked to Kuei as Aang mounted Appa with Sokka following soon after. "Kuei, please be careful about whom you speak with on the invasion. We need your support and can't afford to lose it."

"I understand. I will inform only our allies that you trust." He bowed to the assassin. Naruto returned it and walked away. "Have a safe journey."

The Bloody Inferno walked towards Smellerbee and Long Shot. "Are you both ready to go?" They gave curt nods and the blond began heading for the Outer Wall with them in tow. Rai pranced up beside him, practically smiling at the knowledge of going home. Shibaru was pouting if anything. "Don't worry, Shibaru," Naruto called out. "I promise I won't let Rai eat all of Den's corpses." That brightened her mood a little and she happily sat at her masters' side. _The things we do for our pets. _

(-)

Long Feng sat in his prison cell with his eyes closed. He had planned for this. He planned on this so long ago that it seemed like nothing more than a distant dream. It was one of his greatest fears: losing all his power that he had worked so hard to acquire. Although he lost his major power, he still held a vast amount of it with his own people. He smiled as his mind began to work the options of a coup d'état. But his problem wasn't getting out of here. His Dai Li agents could handle that.

A tray was slid into his cell with prime food that no P.O.W or criminal would ever get on the inside of a cell.

"The Council of Five and the military remain loyal to the Earth King," the Dai Li agent explained. Long Feng smiled. "But the Dai Li remain loyal to you."

The man walked away, leaving Long Feng with a smile as he bit into his biscuit. It tasted good to him, though he didn't know what tasted better: the fact that Dai Li were still his or that the biscuit tasted a bit sweet.

(-)

There were two rows of guards posted along the grand entrance way to the steps of the palace. Every single guard kept their gaze locked on the person in front of them out of respect for the Kyoshi Warriors that had come to them in their hour of need. Kuei stood on top of a small rise in the earth, acting as a podium for him as he announced the grand entrance of the female warriors.

He raised his arms out as if to greet an oncoming child. "In our hour of need, it is with the highest honor that I welcome our esteemed allies: the Kyoshi Warriors!" He proclaimed loudly.

The three females bowed deeply to him and then looked up slowly. "We are the Earth King's humble servants." Gold eyes met his own, but he didn't see it or the marks that were hidden by the makeup and hair of Azula. No one could.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 17

The sun had just dipped behind the mountains, setting the sky ablaze with dozens of different colors. It was a beautiful sight to Smellerbee, Longshot and Naruto as they walked out of the forest. They hadn't said a word since they entered it and were still quiet even after leaving it. It took Smellerbee awhile before she gave the blond a strange glance and said, "So what can we offer our skills in the village as?"

The blond gave her a quick glance before returning back to the path they were taking. "A number of things I suppose," he answered carefully. Smellerbee gave him a strange glance but said nothing as the blond ventured out onto the face of the closes mountain. He tapped the side of it and a wall collapsed with two lone guards standing at attention before him. "Uzumaki Naruto returning from field duty with two members from Jet's Freedom Fighters."

The two guards gave them two Freedom Fighters a quick glance before giving curt nods. They were ushered inside and the hidden wall, raised, to hide the entrance to the village.

Naruto lead them through various parts of the village before stopping in front of a break building with a woman standing outside near the door. She looked up at him, revealing empty sockets that were barely covered by her thin bandages. Her long brown bangs nearly covered them up. She wore all brown, opting to wear a battle uniform that consisted of simple pants with minor armor padding on her thigh and calves, and a simple sleeveless shirt.

"Uzumaki," she called out. Her lips curled into a smile when he rolled his eyes. "You truly think you can sneak up on me, don't you." Her head tilted slightly and she said, "But you weren't trying to sneak up on me, were you?"

"No," he laughed. He scratched the back of his head and laughed a bit longer before giving her a serious look. "I was just passing by when I saw you. It's been a while, hasn't it?" She nodded and Smellerbee tugged on Naruto's shirt. He chuckled and said, "Sorry. This is our resident teacher. She teaches most of the people who want to learn how to fight the Fire Nation. I'm guessing all your students passed your test since you're out here and not in your training area at the moment."

She nodded. "Indeed. They passed my tests and I let them leave accordingly. Whether they make it in the real world of combat, I am unsure. But what I am sure of is that they will give the Fire Nation hell. I have taught them everything I know and more. They are now a family and will work accordingly. I dare say they are better students than my previous students." Her head hung low when she mentioned them.

The blond hung his head as he too remembered her last group of students. She had thought she taught them everything she knew but she hadn't. She hadn't been able to teach them how to move on and not let their emotions get the better of them. They let their hatred control them and they made an attack on a Fire Nation. They all died as a result and their lifeless bodies were used against the citizens in a local village to remind them of what happened to those that tried to stand up to them.

"But I have had help in teaching these students." She smiled and looked up. "They have learned from both me and my husband. We are both happy to have them as our students and hope they work together well enough to make us all proud."

"So who are you?" Smellerbee finally blurted.

"This is Yuki. She's a very good friend to Lyra. Her husband is one of my friends and we used to spar a lot when we got time but we haven't been able too since he got sick with Black Lung Dieses. He spent a long time in the mines as a child and got it early on. He's a tough man and was able to push through most of it for a very long time but now he's getting worse." The two hung their heads and sighed. "Where is he? I wish to see him before I depart."

"He is with the healers getting treatments. You may see him tomorrow if you are still here." The blond shrugged and patted her on the shoulder. "But you have yet to tell me their names, Uzumaki. Are your manners slipping, perhaps?"

The former Jinchuuriki laughed and appreciated the dig. "Sorry about that. I was just happy to see you again. This is Smellerbee and Longshot. They're former teammates to Jet. He died a few days ago."

"Oh," she whispered in shock. "I'm sorry to hear about his death. I wish I had been able to be with him one last time. He was a good student of mine that also lost control to his anger. That saddens me greatly." She reached around, grabbing her wooden cane and raising to her feet. She tapped it gently on the earth and said, "But we must endure. That is the nature of war. We haven't the time to mourn our losses; only move forward and fight until this war is over or we die. That is all we can do for now."

Naruto nodded slowly and said his goodbyes to the blind teacher. The three moved through various parts of the village before Naruto dropped them off in the care of a young man that seemed rather annoyed with their arrival. After dropping them off the blond moved in the direction of Den. He wanted to know what the men they had helped Blindside knew.

He stopped in front of his door and was about to open it when he heard, "That was years ago, Len. I'm a little fuzzy… on the… details!" He was groaning with each word until he tore something out of something. There was a pause and then he said, "Why must you pack everything so tight?! It bugs me to no end, woman!"

"Woman!" Len screamed. Naruto smiled and opened the door. Len was holding Den by his throat and trying to choke him to death. He seemed rather content with her hands wrapped around his throat at the moment. Naruto coughed and the two turned in his direction. Len punched her boyfriend in the face, earning a muffled groan from her lover. "Sorry about that," she lied while dusting herself off. "Force of habit."

Naruto nodded and stepped inside. He shut the door and leaned against it as the two broke contact and started rummaging around their room. "Nice to see you still keep everything organized."

The room was anything but organized. Files and various scrolls were strewn about, making the place look like a wreck. Cabinets were thrown open and filled with scrolls, dishes, and clothes both clean and dirty. The place was in despite need of a woman's touch.

Len rolled her eyes and shoved a stray bang out of her eyes. "Yeah well, he's to blame." She jabbed a thumb in her lover's direction. He answered with a shoe to her head, sparking yet another fight between the two. Len eventually calmed down and sat down at the small table. "I suppose you're here because you want information?" The blond nodded. She sighed and smothered her shirt with her hands. "Convoys heading towards Ba Sing Se are currently about to be attacked by elite Fire Nation squads. Setsuna's team was sent out to safeguard them on their journey to Ba Sing Se."

She stopped as the blond groaned. "Why would she send Setsuna's team instead of… oh I don't know… Silva's team or even Rampage? I mean I can understand Setsuna's team being sent, but Rampage enjoys the easy missions like those and Silva's team is just as capable as Setsuna's team."

"Silva's team is all dead," Den explained without a care in the world. Naruto gawked at him and he snuffed out a small candle that was beside him. "And Rampage is on a mission, been on a mission for at least three months now. We think he's dead, but we haven't found a body yet. So he's being reported as MIA for the time being."

The blond groaned. "Tell me everything."

(-)

"They're still planning for the invasion," Lyra explained carefully. Katara listened to her as they ventured through the market on their way to the Day Spa for some beauty treatments. Though Lyra doubted they'd be back today or that the invasion would be fully planned out by the Council of Five, Katara was determined to believe things would be done quickly and effectively. Her spirits were in the right area, but Lyra knew this would take a few more days.

Katara half listened to her explanation. She had yet to see Suki or the Kyoshi Warriors that came with her. She wanted to see her just to see what the deal was with Sokka and Suki, but she was willing to hold off for now. Though it was a good time to rat him out on his little mishaps and quirks that she knew would aggravate him to no end.

"You're not even listening, are you?" Katara snapped out of it and waved her arms around frantically. "I can tell you're lying. I had to deal with hundreds of assassins that actually thought they were good at lying. The only good person I know of that can lie to me and get away with it is a young man we all call Kar. He's a skilled martial artist that looks scary, but he really isn't. But he's a hell of a good liar. He even managed to get me to believe that it was a Saturday when it was only Wednesday. He's a pro alright."

She paused and then smiled.

"But he lacks the ability to be a prankster. If he was, he'd be a damn good one. Ghost was about the only person that could actually keep me on my toes half of the time. He spent most of his time getting fake meetings of the Elite Assassins just so he could show off a new weapon he found or his latest kill. He has no shame and will do anything just to get a reaction out of people. He's twisted for sure."

The two walked in silence and soon appeared at the spa. Lyra quickly stripped down to nothing, grabbed a towel and wrapped herself up with it. Katara took her time but soon joined her at the mud bath area. They soaked for a while before deciding to jump out and just head for some grooming. Once they were finished they moved out and began moving through the city at a leisurely pace until something struck Katara.

"Why does Naruto call himself the Rank Two Assassin?" she asked.

Lyra smiled. "Our ranking system works by numbers not because we don't believe in fancy titles but because we have it set for a better chain of command. Not a lot of the assassins we work with understand rank to well, like General or Admiral. So to make it simple we go by numbers. But if we did go by rank, Naruto would be the Lead General for out assassins. He's the second in command should anything happen to Rehka, our actual leader."

"So how does that work for the others." They stopped at a small café and got a table. They ordered their drinks and continued their discussion.

"Naruto is the second in command while Zentrai comes after him. Originally I was the second in command because Naruto didn't want the job and gave it to me." _More like forced it on me. _"And at the time, Naruto called himself an ANBU instead of the Rank Two Assassin."

"ANBU? What's that?"

Lyra shrugged and said, "Where Naruto's from, they were the personal weapons of the Hokage, his leader. He took the title for awhile before losing it. Not sure why he stopped using it, but he did. It was sort of interesting to say the least. I mean he used to tell us so much about his home life and the cool things they could do. He had one friend that could see through walls, the earth, and even through people's skin." She paused for a moment and then grinned. "I'm willing to bet money that person also used his power to see through people's clothes as well."

Katara didn't like anyone with that ability. No matter how noble a person could be, she had the image of someone using it for evil intent or just for perverted uses. She paused for a moment when she thought about the bigger advantages that would give someone and then considered it to be a very valuable asset. Being a spy would be very easy for them and it would be child's play as well.

The waiter returned and they paid their bill before leaving.

"Regardless of what name any of our assassins take up, we train them to never give up and never lose faith. We can win this war, Katara. We have to." They pressed on and continued with their daily routine of guarding the King and training.

(-)

Guru Pathik stared off into the distance as Aang slept. He didn't concern himself with his safety, he knew Aang was safe where he was and well protected by Zentrai. So far they had opened three of his Chakras, an intense experience for the teen to be sure, but he was moving faster than expected even in his eyes.

He turned up to the stars and smiled. He could feel it even now. All the cosmic energy flowing around the world and into him. He never relished in the power it gave him, for it was meant for all people that would listen to his teachings. But there were those that he had taught that never mastered it like he had. He had had dozens of students in the past, some had succeeded while others had failed or given up.

He inhaled deeply and held his breath for a moment before rising. He looked back to the stars for a moment and said, "Shame and guilt have moved in where willpower and pleasure should be. What are you ashamed and guilty of, Zentrai?" The shadows birthed the mute and he held a scroll in his hand. The old man turned and smiled at him. "Why do you feel this way?"

"_It isn't my fault. I accept that." _He turned away for a brief moment and then pocketed the scroll. _"But I'm ashamed of what my people once did and what they accomplished. It was wrong and unnatural."_

"Yes it is unnatural." Zentrai's eyes widened for a moment and Pathik smiled. "I know very little on your history, Zentrai. But your people did do terrible things and you yourself are not to blame. So you have no reason to feel guilty for something your people did when you weren't born yet."

"_I suppose you are right. But it still feels wrong to know what they accomplished. It's unnatural and goes against the balance of the world." _He shook his head and turned back to the shadows. _"If you know what we once did, then you know how we gain mastery over our powers as well." _

"Yes. I know of it as well. As unnatural and wrong as it is, your people did horribly things in the past, things that have been covered up by the great Spirit, Wong Shi Tong." Zentrai laughed as he remembered his battle with the owl. The old man smiled him as he felt his energies mix and return to normal. "Do you feel better now?" He nodded and the old man moved towards him, patting him on the back when he was close enough and said, "You shouldn't burden yourself with the things of the past. It is important to remember the past, but it is more important to know how to move on from and learn from it as well."

"_Thanks… You're not a bad old geezer I suppose. Though the whole cosmic energy thing you're teaching Aang is complete nonsense to me."_

Pathik laughed and slapped him harder. "Most do believe that. Most do." They walked inside and fell asleep quickly.

(-)

Smellerbee jumped and then lurched forward. Before she could strike she was on the ground, Yuki had pinned her to the ground and was soon standing over her. The empty sockets were covered, but it still creeped her out to no end that a blind woman could fight so well in hand-to-hand combat._ But then again, _she thought as she remembered Toph, _if Toph can do it; who's to say she isn't doing the same?_

Yuki took a step back and helped the teen stand up. "You held back. Do you think I am weak for being blind now?" Smellerbee nodded slightly and laughed childishly. Yuki shook her head sadly. "Most do take me lightly in the beginning. They see me and think that I am weak and frail. It is the luxury of being blind, I suppose. People never expect a blind person to be able to fight so well, and ends up being their downfall."

"Such is the fate that even men suffer from," a new called out. Yuki smiled and inclined her head as if she were attempting to hear the footsteps that crunched the gravel beneath feet. Smellerbee stared at the new arrival, a man in his late thirties with scars over his face and arms. He was dressed in dark clothing that seemed to hang off of him rather than cling and was riddled with holes and tears, making him look more like a shadow even in broad daylight.

"Darling, how are you feeling now?"

"Fine," he answered. He moved swiftly to her side. Smellerbee had trouble seeing how he walked with the way he moved. He seemed to glide along the ground rather than take steps. He looked to the young female and asked, "Is this one of our new students?"

Yuki smiled softly. "Yes. She was brought to me by Naruto earlier but left with him. Kar and Red brought her here. I don't know where her friend went. Tell me; where is your friend?"

Smellerbee shrugged. "Longshot was looking at some of the bows you had here and probably decided to remain behind. He's probable with that Red guy. He and Kar creeps me out though."

"Naruto is back? Along with Kar and Red? That's unusual for them." The man took a thoughtful expression before remembering Smellerbee. "I'm sorry. I probably should introduce myself. My name is Masahiro. I'm the survival instructor with my wife being the combat expert. I take it you already have some of the skills required to fight in the war?" She nodded quickly and he smiled softly and sadly. "I'm not being sexiest when I say this, but little girls like you shouldn't be fighting a war. But," he raised a hand to silence her before she could speak, "I understand that this war has dragged on for a hundred years and that a lot of people have chosen to do nothing but fight. You probably lost your family, became an orphan and chose to fight. Correct?"

For once in Smellerbee's life, she looked down at the ground and found it very interesting to look at. She had had a normal life when she was little, but that was before the Fire Nation invaded her village and burned it to the ground. She survived with her family until some bandits came by and killed them for their money. She was lucky to be off looking for food when it happened and witness her first real death at the hands of the bandits.

Remembering that made her remember why she had chose to help Jet with everything he did. She wanted revenge. The bandits had been created by the Fire Nation after they raided another village for supplies. The Bandits had been hungry and looking for easy food and money. They ran into them and stole it from them. When her parents didn't give it to them they simply killed them and moved on.

_That was when Jet found me, _she remembered. She sniffed back her tears and looked up to the man. "Yes. I chose to fight because I wanted revenge on the Fire Nation. They caused all my pain and suffering and I wanted them to suffer as well."

"Revenge," Yuki whispered, "is a double-edged sword. With one side you kill your enemy, and with the other you destroy yourself. There is no justice in revenge, only death and sorrow. Killing for revenge won't bring back your loved ones, Smellerbee. It may fill the void in your heart, but it will never fill you completely. I lost my eyes because of my thirst for revenge. I killed the man that killed my beloved brother, but the price was steep and I paid dearly. So think about what you're doing before you act."

The young teen looked to her empty sockets for several seconds before turning away. "Why are you trying to teach me stuff when I already know it?" There was an edge to her voice. She hadn't asked for the friendly spar with Yuki. She hadn't asked for their stories. She hadn't asked for anything. Yet they were telling her stuff that she either didn't want to know or shouldn't have known. But as she looked into her empty sockets, she saw nothing but empty sockets that told no stories or answers for her.

"You want to fight the Fire Nation, correct?" Masahiro questioned. She nodded. "We can teach you how to fight them. How to kill them. How to win. But to do that you must overstep the boundaries of life and death. You must become Death itself and wield it as though it is your very blade. I can teach you how to fight, survive and win. But I can't teach you how to be Death. You have to learn that from a Master Assassin."

"Master Assassin? How do I get one of them to train me?"

Yuki smiled, her features morphing into something that went from a dark and poetic beauty to a monstrous face that scared her. "In order to get their attention you must pass our tests. Our duty is to teach the students how to fight, survive, and win. How we do this is cruel and unusual, but you eventually learn to beat us and when that happens we give you ranks depending on how well you did during your time with us. Depending on your rank and what your specialty is, you will get the attention of one of the double digit assassins. Red is one of these types. He is a Stand Alone Assassin, but he's a very capable leader, just as Kar is. Getting their attention will be easy since you were once a Freedom Fighter. When this happens you will be trained by them by doing missions with them. The more missions you take the more you will learn until you have mastered the way of being Death. But there are two types of Master Assassins. There are the Top Ten Master Assassins and the Master Assassins that train people. The Top Ten Master Assassins hardly ever train others as they have other duties that they are needed for. Do you understand?"

"I think I understand." She smiled.

Yuki smiled but understood she didn't understand entirely. "Let me give you advice. Naruto is the Rank Two Master Assassin. He is known for his speed, power, and abilities as a frontline fighter. He is skilled in multiple fighting styles, and his ninja arts make him an ideal fighter. What he has makes up for his tactical mind. He is nothing more than a frontline fighter with unspeakable powers and ferocity in battle. Now, Zentrai, who was once the Rank One Master Assassin, is known for his Magnetism-Bending, fighting styles, being a frontline fighter, and for his tactical mind. He is very skilled in all areas, which is why he was once the Rank One Assassin. Now we have Rehka as the Rank One Master Assassin, our leader. Rehka is a spy at heart, but she is better known for her tactical mind set. She can plan things out to the point where the enemy themselves are attacking each other. She has done this once and she can do it again. Do you understand?" Smellerbee nodded and Yuki was left wondering if she truly did understand or not.

(-)

Ty Lee disobeyed Azula's orders to stay at the house while she looked around the city. Azula wanted information on where they could launch an attack and where Naruto and Zentrai were. She didn't care too much for Aang at the moment. Yes Aang was a top prize as well, but Naruto and Zentrai were clearly worth more to her, not just as targets that Ozai wanted, but as a living breathing death threat that they were.

But despite the orders given to Ty Lee by Azula, she still wanted to know more about the city and about Naruto. So she had set off to find him. She knew this was a risk not just for her safety and Mai's, but for Azula's as well. The Earth King would probably have them thrown in prison, locked so far underground that the idea of sunlight would be a blessing and a miracle to ever see again. He'd use Azula as a ransom, though she doubted he'd actually pay it, and try to get the war to end.

And she did all of this to understand Naruto's aura and the Dark Spirit that she had seen. She had tried searching for him with no luck on her own. She tried asking people, but they either pointed her in false directions or simply stated that they hadn't seen him or didn't know him. The last place she checked was the Great Wall where a dozen guards stood waiting for anything the Fire Nation might throw at them. They told her that he had left with two people and a large animal.

What this all meant was that he was out of the city and possible back on the road. She doubted that though. When she asked for a description of the two people he was with they didn't match anyone the Avatar was with nor of Lyra or Zentrai. And the fact that he went out with only one large pet meant that Zentrai was probably still in the city. But after a quick set of questions about Zentrai, she learned that he too was out of the city with the Avatar as well.

_So where would they go, _she wondered. She walked through the streets passing children by that ran around happily as they played games and pulled pranks. They had simple and happy lives. _Too bad we're trying to destroy this. _It hadn't been the first time she had seen happy Earth Kingdom citizens having fun and being happy. She used to work for the Circus and was used to seeing such things when she traveled out into areas that the Fire Nation either didn't control or simply didn't want.

But even then she never saw how happy they were. Not like these people. It was as if the war had never even reached them. She wondered if that was because of the walls and a special law. The Fire Nation had special laws in place to keep people happy. She had learned early on that what they were doing was wrong, but she never had the courage to stand up and fight against it. They had no real greatness now and she knew it. She just wanted to believe that what they were doing was right. But the more she traveled with Azula, spoke with Naruto when she was with him, and saw of the world that was being created, she wondered if this truly was about spreading greatness and joy.

"Hey," a female voice called out. She stopped and turned. Mai appeared from behind her with her arms crossed. She was dressed in her stolen Kyoshi Warrior attire just like Ty Lee was. No point in risking capture or being seen in Fire Nation clothing. "What are you doing out here? Azula will be mad if you get us caught," she whispered.

Ty Lee turned away to hide her scornful expression. She hated Azula right now. Hadn't she suffered enough under their power? Was Azula mad or did she simply have a death wish? She was tittering on the edges of life and death as though it were a game now. She thought things through, yes, but she seldom looked back to see what it had cost them. _She still thinks she can capture them or kill them. _She turned back and gave Mai a goofy grin. "My bad." She tried to laugh it off but the laugh was forced and even the brooding weapon mistress could see through it.

She sighed. "There's a park near here. Let's go talk there."

The young acrobat nodded and followed quietly until they reached the park. It was rather beautiful in a mystical sort of way. It was covered with large trees and a nearly endless meadow. Benches, swings, and small earth bridges covered the place while the bridge gave people access to other areas where a small stream of water parted them, giving the place the mystic sort of feel. It truly was beautiful.

Mai move to a shadowed area under a large tree and sat down on the bench. She patted the spot next to her, but the young female decided to remain standing and lean against the tree. Mai accepted this and spoke first. "I won't tell Azula about what you were doing. I got worried about you when you vanished. I went looking for you because I thought you might have been captured or worse." She paused to let that sink in. Ty Lee looked away sadly but seemed rather happy to know that Mai cared about her. "But you can't go running off with Naruto or Zentrai in the city. If they see you or detect you, they'll be onto us and probably attack us." _Or attack Azula and leave us to the mercy of the Earth King. _

"Naruto and Zentrai are out of the city at the moment," she replied quietly and quickly. Mai seemed startled by this but accepted it. She shifted slightly against the tree and continued. "Naruto left with two people and his pet. Zentrai left with the Avatar and took his pet with him as well. They both went in different directions. Also, the Avatar took the Water Tribe Warrior with him. They didn't know where either of them were heading."

Mai considered all of this for a moment. She wasn't as good or quick in thinking through like Azula was, but give her enough time and she could come up with a few things. Thinking of small things on the fly was more of her style while Azula was a detailed person that planned everything out to the last bit. But as she considered this, it all lead up to one thing. "If Azula were to hear of this she might try to take the Earth King hostage and bring the walls down."

The young acrobat stared at her friend for a brief moment. Her mind was blank for the most part but it soon snapped back into function as she noted something important in her words. "You don't want this city to fall." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. Mai shook her head slowly while bobbing one hand up and down. "But you have seen how happy these people are. You don't wanna ruin this, do you?"

She scoffed and looked away. "I don't personally care for these people," she stated. "And I don't personally care for what Azula is after. If I'm forced to make a tough choice I'll take the easiest one with the least amount of pain being involved. That's how I am." That was a fact that Ty Lee accepted without question. "But," she said slowly, "I do understand what they are doing here. While you were off looking for Naruto I learned that this city has recently began to learn of the war. There was a law passed about two or three decades ago that prevented people from talking about the war. Over time they simply forgot about it and that's why these people act the way they do. A lot do know of the war, but most aren't even aware of it."

"If Azula were to learn about that…" Ty Lee looked away. Her words spoke for themselves. If Azula learned that the war wasn't mentionable here and that no one really knew of it, she would force them to attack from the inside out and take down the city walls. That would take time though and time wasn't something they were short on. They all knew that but they still accepted it at the moment. She wondered for a moment if they were living on borrowed time or their own. _If Naruto or Zentrai returns and finds us we'll surely be killed, ransomed off, or worse, tortured for information. _

Mai suddenly got up and stretched. "We should return to the house. Azula will probably be back soon and she'll wanna know where we were at." She began walking and paused mid-step. "You learned they were gone so it's up to you to tell her or not. I won't tell her anything about it since you found out about it. Okay?" Ty Lee smiled and nodded. Mai smiled back at her for a brief moment and then continued on her way home.

(-)

Larka, or Len as she was known as, was not very happy about being a messenger for anyone. It was the one job she hated the most. She hated it more than she hated the Fire Nation. Sure she understood that relaying information from captured soldiers they tortured was part of her job. But when it involved things that weren't relevant to her anymore, such as the information about how Silva had died and the last known location of Rampage, she really didn't care too much for it. It was old news anyways.

She leaned back and began. "Silva's team was sent out to investigate some strange people that had appeared in a forest not too far from where one of the Earth Kingdom cities used to stand. The place was abandoned centuries ago for unknown reasons. We're not even sure they did abandon it to be honest. But there were several odd sightings from scout parties in the area and we sent Silva's team to check it out."

She pulled out one of her then needles, a senbon as Naruto called them, and jammed it in her mouth so she could chew on it. It was nervous habit that was done more out of frustration then being nervous. Depending on how much she chewed on it showed how nervous or frustrated she was. She was chewing on it pretty hard though. She was frustrated, not nervous.

She leaned forward onto her elbows and lowered her head. "We sent them out to investigate. They were gone for a while with no check in via messenger hawks or other animals we often use. We got worried. So another team was sent out to find them. A few days later they vanished and we sent out four teams." Naruto listened quietly but she could tell he was thinking long and hard on this. She stopped for a moment and then continued. "Out of the four teams that were sent only two people came back alive… well one of them was alive. The other one was barely alive and died a few hours later."

"Who were they?"

Den rolled his eyes. "Huttser and D," he answered.

Naruto blinked. He knew those two very well. D was an exceptional fighter and was very talented. Unlike Naruto, who used Kyuubi's energy with his speed and strength to cut through his opponents, D could use his own hands like blades. He tore through people with ease as though his hands were made of metal or ice. The truth was, was that he was very proficient with his combat style and knowledge of the human body that he could cut through the bodies weak points with his long nails and thin arms. He was very strong and very fast, but his attacks did leave openings that any enemy could get at. Not to mention that when he fought he had tunnel vision because of how fast he was when he ran full out.

But Huttser was another story. Huttser was a Waterbender prodigy that had been found near the South Pole a decade ago. He excelled in defense and could turn an opponent's attacks against them, literally. They worked together, D and Huttser, both covering their own openings and filling the gap with Ling-Ling, the only female member of their team. Skilled fighters that had never been defeated in combat and were feared as the Mist Demons for Huttser's Waterbending skills.

"Which one is dead now?"

"Huttser," Len answered swiftly. She pulled the metal object from her mouth and twirled it around. "D is still in critical condition. His mind seems to have been damaged as best we can tell. But the deaths are far more interesting than D's fucked up mind now." She leaned back and smiled. She smiled only when something either interested her or when she was about to get to torture someone. Naruto didn't like this at all. "They all died from multiple stab wounds all over their body at the same time as best we can tell."

"Multiple attackers," he asked. She shook her head. "That's the only explanation."

"Unless you take out Magnetism-Benders," Den informed him. Naruto opened his mouth to protest to this and cover Zentrai when Den raised a hand. "I understand and fully acknowledge that Zentrai was nowhere near this location. He couldn't have been. But we have found other Magnetism-Benders in the past, though they never had had control of their powers or didn't show us. They may not being helping us, but that doesn't mean that there could be more out there somewhere. I know Zentrai didn't do it, but take into account that we have found others but none have ever been able to bend or have the will to. That doesn't mean that others won't appear that can bend like Zentrai, considering that he started from scratch with no trainer."

"You think they killed our people when the Fire Nation is more of a threat to them then we are?" Even as he said this he knew it was a lie. How many people had he killed that weren't Fire Nation? He lost count. He knew he did terrible things to try an end this war. Everyone had. No one could honestly look him in the eye, or anyone else for that matter, and say they hadn't done anything inhuman during this war. Naruto knew he had killed innocent people. He knew he had killed civilians. He knew that he was a bad person for what he was doing. But what else could he do? War was war and there was only one way to end it.

Len stood up and moved over to a table and removed a draw from it. She pulled out a small scroll and gave it to him. "This is the location of the place. If you wanna check it out, feel free. But we're not sending out anymore teams to this area. If anything else happens to appear around there, we're sending in you guys. We're not going to repeat another Stone Field battle. That was wrong on our end and we shouldn't have sent them. We're not wasting any more lives than what we have to."

Naruto licked his lips. "We're going to hell, aren't we?" They said nothing. Naruto pocketed the scroll and then stood up. He dusted his pants off and shook his head. "Well… if we're going to hell, I'll see you all on the otherside eventually." Naruto walked towards the door, stopping only to say, "Can you let Rai into your dead pile, Den. I know they're pilling up again."

The man nodded and whistled. Out of the darkness Rai appeared, his tail wagging happily. Den led the way while Naruto ventured off to speak with Rehka about the invasion and about the Earth King's choice on the matter of the war.

(-)

Azula was used to all things that could be thrown at her. She truly was. But she felt somehow out of place. So many enemies were at her side and all of them were watching her. It made her a little paranoid, but she coped with it. She could handle this.

But she didn't feel safe at the moment which was why she had hurriedly moved back to the home they had been given and shut the door. She made sure to shut it slowly and smiled to herself.

Everything was going according to plan. She had control over the Dai Li now. Long Feng was a fool who wanted power he didn't deserve. She saw that in him and decided to use him. She had what he wanted and he had what she wanted. They were helping each other for the most part, but she understood that they were both using each other. There would only be one victor from all of this and that would be her. She'd make sure of it.

She looked around the room and noticed the two Dai Li guards were standing in the shadows. "Did Long Feng send you to keep me in line?" They didn't move. She scrunched her nose up at them and took a single step forward before noticing something on the ground. There was a thick scent of blood in the air and it didn't take her long to figure it out. "I was informed by the guards at the Great Wall that you had departed, Naruto. So how are you here?"

Clapping sounded and the blond appeared from one of the shadows. He moved slowly towards the two guards and pulled them from their thin metal wires that he had hung them up with. They crashed to the ground with a thud and began to drain their fluids faster.

"I must say I am impressed you figured it out so quickly. Clearly I've underestimated you." She summoned a ball of fire in both hands. He waved his hand around in a slow and joking manner. "I'm not really _here _Azula. I'm actually gone from the city, but I and four others remained behind to guard it. We stayed out of sight for the most part but when I heard that you were actually in the city I got curious. Kyoshi Warriors are good, but I had asked Suki personally to take something back to Kyoshi Island. I'm guessing you stole the money I gave her?"

"No," she laughed and snuffed out her fireball. "I didn't know she had any money with her. I admit though that we did fight her and we did win, despite my broken arm you gave me." She raised one arm and showed that it was still bandaged and on a splint. "I must say that you do surprise me a little with every meeting we have. I seem to learn more and more about you. Did you manage to sneak back into the city and make these clones or are you the real you?"

"I'm a clone alright. And the real me is actually gone for the moment." Her brow scrunched together and he smiled. "I'll admit that I'm not as smart as Zentrai and Lyra, but you clearly underestimate me, Azula. My clones don't have a limited range like you think they do. They're range is limitless. I could be at the South Pole and the North Pole at the same time if I wanted to be with my clones. That's their maximum range because that's as far as the world goes."

Azula stared him down. Without a second thought she formed a fireball again and the blond smiled happily.

"I'd win in the end," he told her.

She put it out and stared at him. "How so?" Azula snapped her fingers and the earth rose to great the teen. It incased him and two Dai Li agents appeared. "You should know that I could have you killed right now."

"You'll just be quickening your death," he shot back with a smile. They stared each other down for a moment before the blond inhaled deeply. "This is a win-win situation for me, Azula. No matter how you chose to look at it, I still win. The reason is because when I die, and trust me I will die, whether it's by your hands or my own, all my information that I gathered will be sent to the original. It works like a messenger hawk, but instant. So the original me will be alerted to your location, the fact that you have the Dai Li on your side, and that you're arm is still broken if not just a little messed up. I will admit that it will take the original about two hours to get back, but not even you and your Dai Li friends can bring down the city in two hours."

Azula stared at him. Naruto stared back at her. She snapped her fingers and the Dai Li moved forward with their hands up and ready to kill him. Naruto just smiled at them as they shoved spikes of earth through his casing, destroying him a puff of smoke.

With a limited amount of time and the knowledge of the Solar Eclipse that was coming she knew she had to act fast. If she acted too fast she would be noticed. If she acted too slow Naruto would get here and destroy her and the Dai Li. "We have to move fast. I want a dozen of you to stay here in case he comes here first. Do whatever it takes to take him down." They nodded mutely but were aware that just a dozen wouldn't be enough to stop him. "I'll go speak with my teammates and tell them to get ready. We have to act fast and quietly. Begin capturing the Council of Five when you get an opening to." She rushed out the door and headed out to find her teammates.

(-)

Rehka was in the middle of going over reports about the loss of a half a dozen teams when Naruto was let in by her guard. She wasn't surprised that he wanted to see her. She was the leader and he was the second in command should she fall somehow. But as Naruto walked in, he seemed to possess an aura of urgency that never came around him unless something was grave at the moment.

"Yes," she greeted him with a warm smile but remained sitting. She was the leader. She couldn't let her personal feelings get in the way of anything. "Is there something you wished to discuss with me, Naruto?" She motioned towards one of the chairs but he remained standing. Yet another thing he never did unless things were urgent.

Naruto took a deep breath and said, "I wish to have a meeting of the Top Master Assassins." She blinked but understood the order.

Naruto had the power to demand a meeting of the Top Master Assassins, just like all the Top Ten Master Assassins could. She herself could order one if she felt like it. But the way Naruto had said it made it seem as though it were an order and not a request, another thing he rarely ever did unless the situation was most grave.

She leaned forward, her fingers lacing together as she rested her face behind them. "And why are you requesting a meeting of the Top Master Assassins?"

Naruto took a deep breath before speaking further. "I have come across information that can lead to the defeat of the Fire Nation." Her brow quirked a bit but she kept her mouth shut. "In a few months a solar eclipse will acquire that will leave the Fire Nation defenseless. They will be without their bending powers and totally helpless. We don't know right now how long it will last, but Sokka has a friend looking into it at the moment."

There was an unsteady silence between the two for a number of minutes before Rehka spoke. Her eyes were closed. "Why are you in such a rush now? What's changed?" Her voice was calm and smooth.

Naruto cursed his luck. She knew him too well. He wondered if she had the power to know when a Shadow Clone was in front of her or not at times. With the way she was looking at him she clearly knew he was a clone and nothing more. Or maybe she didn't know he was actually a clone. Women's intuition was a strange thing that not even he could understand at times.

"Azula is in Ba Sing Se disguised at the Kyoshi Warriors. They were captured." He hadn't been aware that he was quivering. He figured she knew he was quivering with the way she was now staring at him.

"I know that Azula captured the Kyoshi Warriors. I didn't send you a scroll out of fear of Zentrai getting it instead of you. He does have a nasty habit of reading your stuff when you've told him not to. I couldn't risk it. He'd go to their aid and think nothing less of the Avatar or you for that matter."

"You made the right call." He stepped forward. "We also lost Jet, but there are more important things to be worried about right now. I'd like for two of our advisors to head out with another team after I've dealt with Azula so they can stay by Kuei's side. Long Feng has recently been revealed for what he is and is now facing time in jail and a court date for his crimes against the Earth Kingdom."

"I understand, but I can't afford to let go of one of my personal advisors and you know this." Naruto sighed and gripped the back of the chair tightly. The hard wood cracked under the strain and he let go. Her eyes opened and she inhaled deeply. No matter what she felt for Naruto, she was the leader and had to remain as such. She couldn't pamper him. "I will order the other Top Master Assassins to come home for this meeting. It will take time. I was going to order one anyways. There are some changes I wish to speak with all of you about." She nodded to the door. "Go save Ba Sing Se. Prevent it from falling. I don't care what it takes."

He turned to leave.

"Previous orders to spare Azula remain. You can kill the rest." Naruto stood still for a moment and then exploded into a cloud of smoke. She smiled. _I'll let that slip for now, Naruto. But if you speak with me again through one of your clones I will have you demoted. _She whistled and her guard walked in. "Call in Ghost, Reaper, Blindside, Kar, Blink, Topaz and Inferno." The guard walked off to gather the ordered people. _Now I only need to worry about Ghost showing up. If he's late when he's actually here, I'll kill him. _

(-)

Naruto raced through the night towards Ba Sing Se. He was roughly a hundred kilometers away from the city and would make there by sunrise if he was lucky. He wasn't worried about Azula getting what she wanted in the amount of time she had, which was a lie in itself, but he was more worried about Kuei. Kuei was still new to this no matter how you looked at it. He would make mistakes and possible keep them at his side like they were Royal Guards or something close to it. They would move in and strike while he wasn't looking or thinking about it.

_At least the clone was smart enough to lie about how long it will take me to get there. She'll be worried and hard pressed for time. I just hope she doesn't realize that I'll be there in four hours instead of two. With any luck Katara and Lyra can help me get them out of the city without causing a scene, supposing they haven't already caused a scene yet. I just hope my clones don't run into trouble._

(-)

"Stay out of trouble and do a simple recon of the area." That had been Naruto's final words to his clones before he departed for Ba Sing Se. They knew what they were being set out to do, but even though he set them out with orders to avoid combat unless there was no other choice, they still didn't like it. They, like the original, wanted revenge for the teams that had been killed.

But in knowing this they didn't intend to follow orders directly.

"We need to move a few more meters before we come up to the cliff edge where the first team spotted the unknowns," Omega said. Naruto gave each of the three clones a unique name in order to separate them by rank and outlying area of expertise. Omega, though oddly named, was dressed in Naruto's civilian clothing to make him stand out as the leader. He carried the map and little tools that the other two carried. He was meant to be the brains of the operation.

"And you use big words," Delta commented with a quick twirl of his fingers. Delta was dressed in Naruto's assassin attire, but left the hood down to symbolize that he was for fighting. He was also meant for scouting as well.

"Be quiet, Delta. We need to be quiet unless you want us to get into a fight with whatever is out there," Gamma announced. Gamma had his hood up and was meant to be the teams' support fighter and logistics for the small OP they were running.

With nothing else to say, they pressed on in search of answers.

They crossed the land without a word and spent several hours searching for various signs of where the battle had first taken place in the forest that brought the team to the cliff face. They soon came across it and were left staring down at a ruined city that had been nearly destroyed. Bloodstains marked the area for the teens, showing them where the fight had first started.

They looked down onto the ruined city with unblinking eyes as they took it all in. Naruto would get all the information they got when this was over. Though they were created with different things and weapons, they were all things he had worn when they were created. It was vast cavern of openings with buildings reduced to rubble and dust from the ages it had been left alone. The city was a bit like Ba Sing Se in the fact that it was once a major city, though it had no defenses to speak of. It was built more than four hundred years ago and abandoned roughly a hundred and thirty years ago. No one knew why it was abandoned, but most believe it had dark secret.

_Then again, _Omega thought with some distain, _everyone has their dirty little secrets. _He gave the signal and the two clones moved out with him.

They traversed two hundred meters of battered defenses and broken weapons until reaching the heart of the city where there was no blood. They looked back to the map for a moment before Omega took them through various sections that seemed to not exist on the map provided. They walked through broken buildings and ruined streets before coming across the last known spot where Bang had been killed.

There was nothing but broken blades, blood stains, and pieces of ripped clothing. Other than that it was a practical dead end with nowhere to go. "Dead end," Delta announced with some small amount of discomfort. "There's nothing here."

"Probably," Omega answered cryptically. He looked back to the map while Gamma walked along the edge, feeling the wall for any irregularities. "This is the spot where they all died. The enemy was here and was hard pressed to keep them out of this area… whoever it was. So something has to be here."

Delta sighed and went back to looking for any possible exits before shaking his head. "I'm going with cornered, okay? There's nothing here!"

Gamma's hand hit a groove and his eyes narrowed. He ran his hand back over the spot and found that it was a small decline between the two wall parts. He knew it wasn't normal. Earthbenders used to build their homes from the earth they could bend, so it was only natural that everything was built with perfect symmetry. The place they were in fit the description and time when this was more common than most. So for there to be any irregularity in the place was a clear sign of tampering or something that needed to be hidden.

"Found something," he said while stepping back.

Omega stepped forward. "What'd you find?"

He tapped the wall and then took a step back. "Hidden passageway," he answered matter-of-factly. He kicked it once and the wall fell backwards. A dark tunnel appeared before them and a gust of wind smacked them all in the face. He looked to the leader, Omega, and nodded down towards the tunnel. "We came all this way. Might as well see how far the tunnel goes."

The lead clone nodded and motioned for Delta to take point. The scout took point down the stairs and began moving swiftly with his back pressed against the wall. The clones knew where this might lead. Like Ba Sing Se, this city was also built from the ground up. It was once a metropolis that had been built beneath the earth and then eventually moved to the surface sometime later. There were no scrolls or tomes on why the city had abandoned their fortress beneath the earth, but most had their speculations.

Delta raised a hand and the team came to a stop. He crept down the corridor further before whistling softly. They followed and found what he had found. Though devoid of light, they could still see near perfectly in the dark. What they found was not very surprising. It was the underground city that had been a master piece equal to that of Ba Sing Se. Crystals of whites, reds, greens, and blues covered the land. The city remained nearly intact say for a few buildings that had fallen here and there.

The three stared in amazement to the wonder before them for a moment. They shook their heads and then began heading down the footpath that lead to the city. Delta followed it for a number of minutes before jumping onto a new path that he himself made with the others following after him before he raised a hand to make them stop. Nothing alerted them that they had been detected, but when a shadowy figured moved from shadow to shadow they began to move for him.

Omega cut his hand sideways, indicating to them that they were to not engage. The figured moved without noticing them and they moved into the building it had been in. Delta snuck in and found that the room had been completely empty. Delta returned and cut his hands up and down, indicating that there was nothing in the room. Omega made the cut to head out.

They moved from shadow to shadow without another soul in sight. They checked every room and building they came across before they stumbled across a simple room that was lit by candles and wavered with the scent of incents to mask the smoke that had been in the room.

Delta went in first while Omega and Gamma remained outside in the shadows to keep watch. The single clone checked the place out before sticking his hand out and motioning for them to come in. Omega moved in and checked the place out before Delta raised and lowered his hands to indicate that they had a lot of stuff inside the room. Omega nodded and checked the room out with him. He pulled back one scroll and unrolled it, revealing a set of stances that had been drawn into the thing. They didn't make sense so he rolled it up and pocketed it.

"Leave everything else," Omega ordered. Delta raised three more scrolls and a tome. Omega considered having him leave it behind but decided not to. He gave a nod and the stuff was pocketed. "We're leaving."

They linked up with Gamma and got out of the place as quickly as they could. As they departed from the city they stumbled across a carriage with no driver. In the back of the carriage was a large metal casket that was chained to it and left standing up. There was a lot of banging from inside it.

"Help me! I have to pee!" Someone screamed from within it.

"Shut up!" Another voice boomed.

The three clones stared at each other and winced. They knew who was inside the thing and although they wanted to leave them be they knew they couldn't. Omega walked up to it and banged on it once. "You okay in there?" He called out. Moaning came from within the thing before whimpering followed. "We're going to get you out. Just hang tight." He motioned to the two clones and they, working together, pulled the twisted pieces of metal apart revealing Master Yu and Xin Fu. "How are you?" Omega cooed.

Xin Fu gawked as the teen pulled them out and tossed them onto the ground.

Delta moved beside the old man and asked, "What are you doing here? And how did you get stuck inside that thing?"

The two shared a silent moment before giving their answer. "We were ordered by Toph Bei Fong's father to return her to him. I'm sure an assassin like you can understand that?" The three clones nodded and looked out towards the city. "We're going to take her back to her family as ordered. Are you going to get in our way?" Xin Fu muscled up and looked ready for a fight.

"No," Omega answered. He knew the real Naruto would pick a fight them, but he was following orders to the letter. "We'll stay out of your way for the time being. We have more important things to take care of then you. But you should stay out of the way for the next few months. Toph will return to her family, that much I guarantee. But she will do so when the time is right. Now get out of this area and don't come back."

They turned tail and ran.

The three clones looked to one another before Gamma spoke up. "Get the stuff to the village and have Den and Len look into it. I'll disburse and give the information to the original. Take care." He vanished in a cloud of smoke, leaving the two clones standing side by side.

"There's a crevice to the east," Delta announced. "Let's go."

(-)

Xin Fu and Master Yu had been on the road for an hour before they decided to let the animal stop and rest for a moment. It was quite thirsty when they pulled up to a small stream to let it drink. The two had traveled in utter silence for most of the trip before reaching this place. As they set out to wash up and drink their feel, Master Yu watched as Xin Fu suddenly pitched forward.

"What's the matter with you? Are you alright?" He approached him and froze instantly when he spied blood gushing out of his mouth and ears. He turned, not sure on what to do. He looked to the animal, but it too was already dead. He took a couple of steps back before he bumped into something. Turning to face it, a metal hand reached out and grabbed hold of his throat. With little effort the being that the arm belonged to hefted him a good three inches off the ground. "Let go of me," he declared.

"Where," a smooth voice replied. Yu blinked and his eyes began to bleed. "Where is my stuff?" The voice sounded angry, but it was too calm and smooth for him to know for sure. His vision went black but he could still hear him speaking to him. "Where did you take my scrolls? And do be honest with me. I'd hate to have to kill you now and not learn anything. So keep that in mind."

Yu opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. He was alone and in enemy hands with no backup or support. _I can't give away the location of the village or what we were paid to do, _he realized. His mind flashed with ways he would have spent the money they would have gotten from Toph Bei Fong's parents before he bit his tongue off. Blood gushed from the wound and he quickly started to choke. His body went limp and he felt himself get thrown sideways. He hit the ground hard.

"Killing yourself will only make it easier for me in the long run. But please take your time in dying. I'd hate for you to die so quickly." Yu screamed as he felt a something enter his body through his ear and sear into his skull. It felt like his body was on fire with his brain being the main target. He screamed, but nothing came out but empty air and blood that bubbled. The pain intensified until finally he blacked out entirely.

(-)

It was night when Zentrai watched Aang attempt to unlock the final chakra in his body. He would spend the next hour or so trying to focus on his chakra and open it by letting go of what bound him to this world. Zentrai didn't understand this fully, letting go of your earthly attachments and all that. But he did understand that it would give him access to a higher power, something that everyone wanted but few could achieve.

But the price was step, even in Zentrai's eyes.

"Why should I let go of Katara?! Three chakras ago that was a good thing!" Aang screamed.

And there in lined the problem. In order to master the Avatar State, Aang had to give up all of his earthly attachments to this world so that his soul could be free and so he could take in the cosmic energy of the universe. When Zentrai thought about it, he realized that his own earthly attachments weren't things he had seen yet, but knew he had. Children. He had a lot of children and he wouldn't give them up. He would never do such a thing.

_At least I'm not the Avatar, _he thought.

The mute remained quiet throughout the argument that Aang had with the Guru. After a couple of minutes of senseless arguing, Aang gave it a try and the results struck Zentrai hard. Faces appeared in the young teen's mind, flooding him with words and pain as they moved together inside him, feeling him with energy and helpful words. He hated the feeling he was forced to go through now. But still he watched on as Aang's tattoos began to glow, a sign that he was entering the Avatar State.

Zentrai could barely make out what was going on in his mind, but he understood enough to know it was his mindscape he was looking at. It was a world filled with stars, a giant ball of blue, white, and green, and a large version of himself in the Avatar State. He didn't understand what that meant, but he knew it was a good sign. He could barely make out Aang walking along a thing purple strip of energy that lead to the thing.

Images flooded his mind of Katara, showing that she was Aang's attachment to the world. He could understand that. She was beautiful to the young Avatar and he was in need of love. But as the images continued to flood him a darker images surfaced. Zentrai barely caught sight of it before the images faded and Aang jumped to his feet.

"Katara's in danger! I have to go!" Aang turned and slid down the slop of the tower they were on. Zentrai followed and stopped when the teen did as the Guru called out.

"No, Aang! By choosing attachment you have locked the chakra! You will not be able to go into the Avatar State at all," he called out.

They waited for a moment before the young Avatar jumped off the edge and made a mad dash for Appa. He scooped up his shirt along the way and put it on. They mounted Appa and took off. _"We should head back to the bay and get Sokka just in case," _Zentrai said. Aang nodded and turned Appa slightly in the direction for Chameleon Bay. The mute closed his eyes as he picked up the last thoughts of the Guru. _"Aang, you should have stayed and unlocked the Chakra. Without it…"_

"I don't care. Katara is more important than Cosmic Energy," he growled.

"_The world needs you, Aang. They don't need you dead. They need you alive so they can actually have hope and so you can stop the Fire Nation from winning the war. This war has had enough dead heroes. If you die or Ba Sing Se falls, this world will lose all hope. There will be nothing left for people to cling to. Do you not understand how important you are to this world?"_ Aang said nothing. Zentrai scowled at him and slapped him once across the face. The blow was less than painful, but it got Aang's attention all together. _"You need to snap out of whatever little fantasy world you're living in, Aang. This world can't take another major lose. If you die there will be nothing left to stop the Fire Nation. So stop thinking and acting like a child and grow up!"_

Aang stared him down for a minute before saying, "Do you want me to kick you off?" The mute smiled, welcoming the challenge, but soon shook his head. There was no point in a senseless fight right now.

(-)

Ty Lee stared at the young Waterbender with neutral eyes. She didn't know what to make of the situation, but she knew it was sever at the moment. As a precaution they had chained her to a wall and had taken out all the water from the area. She couldn't bend without her element and thus was at their mercy for the most part. But to make double sure she couldn't do anything Ty Lee had been ordered to block her Chi.

"Leave us," Ty Lee ordered. The two Dai Li agents looked to each other for a moment before she snapped out, "Do you want me to tell Azula that you're not following orders from a superior?" They backed out of the room with a bow and left the two girls alone. Katara could only glare at her even as she walked up to her. "You shouldn't struggle. It's damaging your skin and aura."

"Like I care," Katara snapped back. She went back to struggling. Ty Lee watched her continue for a number of minutes before the young Waterbender said, "What the hell are you staring at?"

Ty Lee looked her in the eye and said, "What do you know about Dark Spirits?" Katara arched a brow before Ty Lee waved the comment off. "Forget it. It's probably nothing but a fancy play on words by Zentrai." She turned and walked towards the door.

"Zentrai told us about you." The acrobat froze for a moment and then turned to face her. Katara was smiling mischievously. She turned and faced her fully as Katara went on. "He said you had mixed feelings for working with Azula. Even though I don't know her that well, I can tell that even you don't like her all that well. You hate what she's making you do. Zentrai said so himself."

The young girl cocked her head to the side a bit and asked, "What makes you say that?" She lied and she knew that Katara knew she had. Ty Lee didn't like fighting. It stained her aura and made her feel dirty. She never liked taking orders from Azula anyways. Azula's way of telling you to do something was forced, even if she was nice about it, and always carried a hidden threat. If you didn't do as you were asked, you got lynched or worse.

Katara smiled. "Zentrai said you didn't like the way she used people or how she made you join them. That's why. She had someone set the entire net on fire and release dozens of wild animals for her own amusement. Would a real friend do that to someone?" The young acrobat thought about that for a moment before pushing the thought to the back of her mind. She knew a real friend wouldn't do that, but this was Azula and if you didn't listen you got roasted. Seeing her angered expression, Katara smiled. "I thought so."

Ty Lee turned and walked off. She shut the door slowly and then growled as she made her way towards their home. When she got home she was surprised to see Mai waiting for her. "We have orders from Azula," she said simply. Ty Lee nodded and walked off with Mai as she led the way.

(-)

Zentrai and Aang arrived at the bay just in time to find Sokka gearing up to head out and fight the Fire Nation ships that were heading their way. It was luck that Zentrai had spotted them before Aang had and quickly ordered the teen to head over them as he rained down death on them to thin their numbers. The ploy worked and the enemy had been stalled for a number of minutes for repairs and to manage the dead.

But when they arrived a silent message had been passed between Aang and Sokka with unspoken words. Hakkoda took notice of it but said nothing to his son. Zentrai was the one to explain the situation as quickly as he could as they gathered up Sokka's stuff and put it on Appa.

"So you were able to thin their numbers," he asked quickly. Zentrai nodded and he quickly changed up his battle plan. "We'll take care of them. We have dozens of mines in the ocean that should sink most of them or stop them cold. Leave the bay to us. We'll take it from here." The Chieftain slapped a hand on the mute's shoulder and then departed with his troops.

As soon as Sokka was on they took off. "So Katara has been captured by the enemy?" Aang and Zentrai nodded slowly. Sokka racked his brain and then scratched at the side of his head. "Why can't your Avatar powers tell us something more useful?" Aang just shrugged while Zentrai peered out over the edge of Appa to watch the land going rushing by.

(-)

Iroh waited in his home for the attack to come. He couldn't believe what had happened. Part of it he could understand, but the rest he just couldn't. Back when he had tried to take the city he had never managed to get a single man or team inside the city with the walls still standing. Of course once he got the wall to give him an opening he got people inside, but they usually ended up dead or were captured. But Azula had managed to worm her way inside the city, the walls still standing of all things, and had managed to take over one of the most power Earthbending troopers: the Dai Li. He couldn't understand how she managed it, but he'd never question it. What did happen that he had expected was that Zuko would turn to face her, not run like he should have.

Iroh knew the Dai Li were powerful people, some of the most feared Earthbenders in the world, not just for their fighting abilities but also for their ways of handling people that got in there way. He had seen it firsthand only once and hoped to never see it again. But Zuko had turned to face Azula and her new pets only to get captured. He knew that Zuko wouldn't rat him out on their new living arrangements, the Dai Li probably already knew where they lived.

So all he had to do was wait for them to show up and then capture one of them for answers. And after he did that he'd have to track down the Avatar's group and pray they'd help him out.

There was a soft whine from the door and it was slowly opened. Iroh waited in the shadows and watched the other main entrances. Two walked in through the door and two more walked in through the window. He checked the back wall and waited for it to fall. He'd seen this tactic once. Have two teams come in through the main entrances and have two more teams come in through random entrances that were self made.

The wall groaned and then unsheathed to allow four men inside. Their hands were up and their eyes wide as they searched the apartment over for him.

Iroh waited until they had their backs to him before he struck. He jumped out of his hiding spot and slammed an open palm into the back of the closes ones' head. He dropped as flames shot out of the palm into the back of his skull where he hit him and lay burning on the ground. The others turned to face the threat but Iroh was already inside their defenses when they noticed him. He brought them down with quick jabs and painful fire blasts to weak parts of the body. They dropped, leaving one man with a scar on his cheek behind.

"I want some answers," Iroh informed him. The man took a bending stance. Iroh dismissed his stance in an instant and had him on the ground with little to no injuries. He gagged him and bound his ankles and wrists so he couldn't escape. With the man clearly alive and captured, he flung him on his shoulder and began his journey to find the Avatar. He only hoped that he would be generous and listen to his pleas, despite the fact that he himself had tried to capture him as well when he was with Zuko.

(-)

Zentrai, Aang, Toph, and Sokka ran into their home to check and make sure that Katara was here. They had already spoken with Kuei, learning that she was with the Council of Five getting a battle strategy worked up. They checked with them and learned that she had run off with the scroll to give to the King so he would know what they had planned. And since they knew that she wasn't with Kuei they headed home only to find the place deserted.

"There's no one else here," Toph informed them.

"Katara is in trouble," Aang proclaimed. "I knew it."

"Wait," Toph ordered. "Someone's at the door." The door received a quick pounding and Zentrai could only smile as he picked up the brainwave pattern of his old friend. "Actually, I know who it is. It's an old friend of mine." Toph walked over to the door and slowly opened it, revealing none other than Iroh of the Fire Nation. "Glad to see you're okay." Iroh smiled briefly and looked to the mute for a moment.

"I need your help," he said quickly. Zentrai and Toph smiled while giving him a wave while Sokka and Aang screamed in terror.

Aang came from his stupor first and quickly pointed at the two. "You guys know each other!"

Zentrai started laughing as he read Toph's mind to learn how it happened. "I met him in the woods and knocked him down. Then he gave me tea and some good advice." She looked to him and offered a quick smile.

"May I come in?" They nodded and allowed him entrance. The door was shut and Iroh took center stage. "Princess Azula is here in Ba Sing Se."

"She must have Katara."

"She has captured my nephew as well."

"Then we'll work together to rescue Katara and Zuko."

"Wow there!" Sokka screamed as he stormed up to the two. "You lost me at 'Zuko'."

Iroh looked away with a sigh of disappointment. "I know how you must feel about my nephew. But believe when I tell you there is good inside him." Iroh placed his hands on the young warrior and gave him a deep and meaningful glance.

"Good inside him isn't enough." Sokka calmly removed his hands. "Why don't you come back when it's outside him too?"

Aang opened his mouth to say something when Zentrai cut them off. _"Sokka, this is your sister we're talking about. You're a warrior and brother. You should have the power to look beyond your hatred long enough to join forces with even your enemies if need be. I've done it on more than one occasion." _His mind went back to all the team ups with other assassins that he didn't get along with. The ones that were at the forefront of his mind were Ghost, Reaper, and Inferno, all three members of the Top Ten Master Assassins. He didn't enjoy working with them, but he did it for the good of the mission.

"Katara is in trouble. All of Ba Sing Se is in trouble. Working together is our best chance." Aang added.

He sighed and Iroh took his chance to barter with them "I brought someone along who might be able to help us."

The group moved outside and found a single Dai Li agent lying on the ground. He was bound and gagged at the moment. Zentrai and Toph could tell he was terrified at the moment. To make sure he talked, Toph bent the earth beneath him and raised it so he was standing and pinned at the same time. He whimpered from the pain that coursed through him from this as Iroh walked towards to remove the gag.

"Azula and Long Feng are plotting a coup. They're going to overthrow the Earth King."

"My sister! Where are they keeping Katara?" Sokka raised his machete threateningly.

"In the crystal catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se… deep beneath the palace."

They ran off, leaving the man where he was. It would be hours before he was found and dealt with.

(-)

Ty Lee was ordered to wait with Mai in the throne room of the Earth King. They would wait for the attack. She had headless sent the Dai Li to face off against Iroh at his own home knowing that they would lose. She knew they would because she planned on it. She had sent them because she wanted him to capture one and make him talk. She knew which one he'd take too. It wasn't that hard to guess which one was weak.

Of course everything went as planned. The agent with the scar was captured, hopefully tortured, and then left back at the home of the Avatar as they linked up with Iroh. She knew he was a traitor now. Rather than capture or kill the Avatar, he asked him to help him save Zuko. She hadn't planned on him turning to the Avatar for help, but she knew there'd be no other choice in the matter. She had a job to do and if she failed she'd be toast.

She waited for the inevitable to come and it eventually did. Sokka, Toph, and Zentrai showed up to have a meeting with the Earth King.

"Thank goodness we made it in time," Sokka announced. He was out of breath and hunched over.

Before the Earth King could open his mouth, Zentrai had thrown a dozen throwing knives in Mai and Ty Lee's direction. Ty Lee jumped away while Mai jumped to the side and rolled up to her feet, her hands poised like cobras with two of her stiletto blades in each hand.

"_They're fakes," _Zentrai exclaimed through his mental link with everyone. Ty Lee grumbled a curse mentally, wishing there was another way to do this without getting herself killed. She jumped for the mute and was kicked in the gut by him when she was in range. She clawed at his leg as the air left her body before she slumped over to the ground clutching her wounded abdomen. Zentrai looked at Mai as she got up, eyes full of hatred and resolve. _"You don't wanna fight me, Zero. It will only end badly." _

Mai's eyes narrowed. "My name is Mai!" She launched a barrage of weapons at him. Zentrai raised a hand, stopping them just inches away from his face. She mentally kicked herself for forgetting his abilities and charged him. Zentrai was ready for her and jumped backwards to avoid the sneaky Ty Lee as she tried to take him from behind.

"_Get the Earth King out of here! I'll hold them off!" _

"No you won't." The three teens turned to the Earth King. Azula had a blue flame, just inches from his neck. Zentrai's left arm twitched and she increased the flame so that it was touching Kuei's throat. "I'll kill him." The mute growled and brought his weapons back. "This fight is over." She turned her glare to Sokka and Toph. They nodded and dropped their weapons. Ty Lee moved in and disabled their Chi system by blocking it in various areas. When she saw Zentrai drop she let the Earth King go, shoving him into the closes of Dai Li that had appeared. "Get them all out of my sight."

Ty Lee watched them get dragged off, stopping only to laugh when two men tried to drag Zentrai away. Apparently he was heavier than what he seemed and they had to bend the earth beneath him to actually move him. Though the mute groaned to all of this, he was laughing as he mentally shouted out, _"Mush, damn it! Make your Lord and Master happy! Mush!" _

"Ty Lee, Mai," Azula called out. "Go with them to make sure that Zentrai remains in place. We'll use him to capture Naruto." The two females shared a quick glance and a similar thought. It was Naruto killing them just like what he did at the Stronghold when they captured Rehka. "He's Chi is blocked so he will be perfectly safe for you two." They shrugged, not really having a choice in the matter, and followed them and ordered them to bind him to the wall with earth shackles.

_Now I have a chance to capture him. All I need is for the Avatar to become my prisoner and everything well work in my favor. I'll take Ba Sing Se for father. I'll bring him the Avatar, Naruto, and Zentrai to reclaim my lost honor. _She laughed and watched as Long Feng approached her, an army of Dai Li agents at his back. _Just a few more loose ends to tie up before I leave. _

(-)

Zentrai enjoyed the fact that they had tied him up and stuck him to the wall with earth shackles and a coffin of earth. He enjoyed it because he knew something that they didn't know. He had patience above all things and knew that Naruto was on his way back. He enjoyed the knowledge because his clones were gone. He couldn't sense them when he had arrived back in Ba Sing Se and from what he had read in Azula's mind, he knew that Naruto was on the way and that she was rushing things.

The door slid open, allowing two Dai Li agents to step in with Azula in between them. He read her mind as soon as she entered and smiled at her.

"_How are you?"_

Azula stared at him coldly. She wanted nothing more than to kill him here and now for all the trouble he had caused her. He had marked her and brought shame to her name. She would have vengeance if she could, but she had to hold off on it. She had to wait and be patient. The best she could do was, belittle him in the hopes of dragging his will down to her level.

"I could kill you, you know?" He grinned at her. She snarled at him and stepped closer. "You think I won't kill you?" A ball of fire appeared in her hand and she pointed it at his face. She edged it closer to his face and threatened to burn the stubble on his chin. He continued to smile at her. "You mock me? I am Princess Azula of the Fire Nation and I will not be made a fool of!"

"_You really don't get it, do you?" _The mute let out a quick snort and turned away from her. _"I could kill you just with those hairpins you have and your crown. The metal is really flimsy. That and the fact that you have never seen Naruto pissed off." _

"Yes I have! I was there at the Stronghold when you, Naruto, and the Demon Goddess took it down, along with two battalions! You both marked me for something I only did for the love of my father and my nation! I thought you understood that what I was doing was good, not evil?" She screamed at him. The mute just shook his head slowly. Her eyes narrowed and she threw the ball of fire at the wall. It blackened the wall and singed the ceiling oily black smoke and stains of soot. "You lie!"

"_No I don't, Azula. I understand why the Fire Nation started their war. They wanted to spread their goodness with the world. They wanted to expand, which normal for most people. The Fire Nation is like fire itself. You wish to expand and consume everything in your path. You burn down anything that gets in your way, just like fire. I understand you need to do this because it is your nature. You are the best this world has to offer when animals and other creatures look at you and see what we do with our lives." _

Azula stared at him in disbelief. She hadn't expected him to be so straight forward with his answers. She hardly knew the guy since he had acted like a pervert during their time together. It was almost as if he did it to fool them and play the fool just for something else in the long run. What could he have gotten from them anyways?

The mute turned away. _"You live with the belief that you're nation is good, and this is true. All things are seen as what they are in the eye of the beholder. Kar would take your side if he wasn't fighting you. He understands the world just as well as Master Gen Fu did, maybe even better. He understands that it is human nature to expand, take, and destroy what we do not have or want. But you on the other hand. You're just a bitch looking for the love you'll never get from anyone or anything, Fire Monster." _

Azula recoiled in shock, and for a moment forget that the mute could actually read minds. Only her mother had ever called her that. She hated that name, but she loved it to. It was proof that she was skilled in things her brother could never be. Back then she was a grand Firebender, spoken about as though she was a true prodigy. She knew she was a prodigy, it was in her blood. She was a proud person, one that took all names that the world spat at her, and grinned or shrugged them off. But now… Now Zentrai was taunting her, tempting her with her past that she had buried within her cold demeanor and frozen heart.

"I'd ask you not to read my mind, but we both know you lack that sort of control." She grinned. He was still smiling. She hated that grin he had. She wanted to punch it right off his face. She cooled herself down, remembering to stick to the plan she had set in motion. "As soon as we get Naruto, you will be of no use to me. I will personally kill you for marking me, for staining me with this dishonor you have brought to me."

"_But you were ordered not to kill me by your dear old man." _She smiled and he continued to read her mind for a moment. He paused and then scowled. _"If only you could wish for that to happen," _he finally said to her. She smiled. _"It won't work. Many have tried to use others against him. None of succeeded. You will fall farther than you ever thought you could. Naruto will destroy you and everything you cherish. He will be the sword that is swung to cleave your head from your neck. Mark my words."_

__"We shall see." She turned and walked away as Ty Lee and Mai appeared with two guards. "Stay with him. Make sure he doesn't escape." She walked away, shutting the door in the process.

Zentrai chuckled deeply as he said, _"She's got a death wish. Only those that wish to do harm to Naruto or those he looks after will have a very slow and painful death." _

Ty Lee gave him a harsh expression but a series of question rang through her mind. Now she had a chance to finally voice them to the mute.

With questions and resolve coursing through her she approached his prison made of earth and began. "What are Dark Spirits? Do they really exist?"

The mute tilted his head to the side. He blinked but smiled. _"Yes. Dark Spirits exist just like you and I. They are creatures of evil though, or what man believes to be evil. How can one judge that anyways? What is good and what is evil?"_

"You're dodging the question." He chuckled. "I'm smarter than I look and act." She added. He dipped his head to show that he understood that much. "But if the Dark Spirits are real, then why don't we know anything of them?"

"_They vanished from our tales and minds long ago, back near the beginning of the creation of the Avatar. They helped in creating him; that much I know of. But anything else I am unaware of. I do know that they only helped in the creation of the Avatar because they wanted to make them as human as possible. Humans are filled with both love and hate, something that they gave to the Avatar as well. Why have saints as the Avatar when you could have a human that would love, kill, hate, and understand suffering? That is what makes us who we are and creates what we do."_

"Then how does Naruto have a Dark Spirit with him now? What brought the Spirit to him and why does it only come out when Naruto uses the power rather than the other way around? How does he control it?"

"What are you talking about?" Mai asked. She pushed off the wall and stepped closer to the mute. "What is she talking about? Is Naruto some sort of Spirit or something?"

"_No. Naruto is nothing but a container for a former Dark Spirit. That creature that you see, Ty Lee, is nothing but a beast of rage and hatred. At the core of its existence is nothing but pain, sorrow, despair, and hatred. It is nothing but a monument to evil, and Naruto is its wielder. He alone can control it because it was bound to him at birth. How this came about, I do not know. But Naruto is not a Spirit or Dark Spirit. He is Uzumaki Naruto, the Rank Two Master Assassin, and my friend and teammate." _

Somehow those words settled the doubt that Naruto was human in Ty Lee's mind. She had tried to understand what he was when she first saw the auras, but never spoke up about them to anyone. Who else could see the aura that she was friends with anyways? There was no one else she could speak to but the enemy in the hopes of learning something grand about him. That was all she wanted, but it left more questions and made her heart rise a little.

"_But may I ask you a question now, Ty Lee?" _She nodded. That was fair in her eyes. He answered hers and now it was time to repay the debt. _"Why are you even searching for him? Do you want something from him? Or is it because you're chasing him for a reason you yourself are not fully aware of yet?" _

Ty Lee opened her mouth to reply, but she stopped. Why was she chasing after him? The aura he had? The specter that she could see when his powers were unleashed? Was this her reason for chasing after him? She knew she would be lying if she said that was her reason for chasing him, but at the same time it was the reason. Naruto was a mystery she wanted solved. Zentrai only made the situation worse for her though. In her heart she knew she had seen many things that intrigued her but she never acted on it like she was now.

"_Is it because you…"_

"No," she declared with hesitation in her voice. The mute's eyes narrowed a bit but he made no effort to correct her words. Though she knew Zentrai could whisper things to her mind that brought delight, pain, or even anger, she heard nothing from him. He wasn't whispering what she was hearing now. Her own mind was revolting against her very words.

Zentrai took a moment to look her over before looking towards the door as Mai proclaimed, "What reason does she need to search him out. Azula is looking for him anyways so can regain her lost honor or whatnot. Why are you busting her over this when you should be focusing on Azula instead?"

"_I'm not busting her because she's chasing after Naruto just to get into his pants. I think we both know that." _A twinkle of mischief entered his eyes. _"Naruto, like me, has a certain charm that just makes people want to get into his pants for some reason. Clearly he's managed to grab your interest, Ty Lee. That's why you want to find him. You want to rattle and jump his bones. And I approve of you. You'd make a great step-sister for me since Naruto and I are like brother." _

Ty Lee blushed while Mai stepped up to defend her and take Zentrai down a peg or two. "Of course you'd know about having people get into your pants. But I actually think it's the over way around, Zentrai." She smiled, believing that she put him in his place.

The mute laughed. _"You'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Xerox?" _Mai blushed and then her face turned blood red as she fought back on the desire to attack him. Zentrai suddenly looked towards the door again and said, _"He's here now, Ty Lee." _She stared at him and then turned to the door. _"He's at your home, getting ready to fight the people that Azula left there to capture him. They will fail. They will die. Are you sure you wish to try and speak with him?" _

She ran to the door without a second thought and pushed past the guards that stood waiting for him to exit if he managed to escape. She ran as fast as she could for their home in the hopes that she could speak with him and understand the questions that her mind asked to no one.

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She never stopped for anything. She just ran. But as she ran she began to notice something about the clouds. The sky was darkening over their home as she rounded the corner and crossed the bridge over the stream that passed through the city.

She heard it before she saw it. The low and ominous growl of the beast that had once lay trapped inside the teen. It appeared above their home, slowly appearing from their home like an animal rising from the morning mist. The subtle growl turned into a snarl as one giant paw bigger than their home appeared and crashed own onto the roof as though it were a boulder to rest it on. With a blast of wind that tore through the land, the head appeared. Its long muzzle lifted into the air and howled out to the sky.

_I'm too late, _she realized. The specter passed, leaving nothing but a ruined house in its wake, signaling Naruto's departure. It vanished into the ground. Naruto was gone when she searched the house, just like the specter had been. All she found were broken bodies of Dai Li agents and a single orange book. She brushed the rubble off of it and picked it up. Her eyes blinked as she took in the cover and title of the book. _Legend of the Gutsy Ninja. _

(-)

Mai remained in the room with Zentrai, her eyes scanning the door as it was shut. Zentrai hadn't said anything since she departed a minute ago, but she had probably been ignoring him. She wanted to go with her, just so she could protect her. She didn't understand why, but there were times like now that she wanted to be there for her, to protect her from harm. She was too innocent and sweet for war. She knew she should have gone with her but she would never be able to keep up with her.

"_She's not fast enough," _Zentrai finally told her. She brushed his thoughts away as they turned to Zuko for a brief moment. _"He's trapped with Katara, the Water-Tribe girl, beneath the ruins of Old Ba Sing Se. He's being used by Azula right now. And that's where Naruto well go. He will go to the old city and destroy everything to protect Aang. That's how he is."_

"Why are you telling me this?"

"_I am trapped here with nothing better to do. I might as well take the time to enjoy the peace and quiet before the storm comes. Regardless of what you think of Zuko or Azula's power, you and I both know she's losing her mind." _

Mai blinked but said nothing or thought nothing. But she had noticed it. With the defeats at Naruto's hands she had begun to slip up. She snapped at others for no reason and tried her best to remain calm and certain, never once losing control. But it was showing. She was losing it.

"_Azula will be the death of you in the end. She is nothing but a power hungry person that would devour the world with flames and then consume the flames themselves for her own reasons. She will never be happy, no matter what she gets. She will always be unhappy, angry, and carry a will to destroy everything in her path. That is how she works now."_

"You're telling me things I've known my whole life," she admitted. "I've watched Azula grow up to be this way. When her mother vanished she grew colder. She had no one to stop her from being the way she was. She pushed Zuko and tortured him. It was probably her idea to have him fight Fire Lord Ozai in the first place. She probably told her dad that he hated him or something. That was probably why he was sent away to find the Avatar."

"_Then you understand that the longer you follow her, the shorter your lives well be? Yet you still follow her? Are you blind or afraid?" _She remained quiet. _"Fear… is nothing but a mother for Hatred, its father being Jealousy. That's what will become of you if you continue to follow her. Her fear will consume her until she is totally lost and her will broken. She will throw everyone away just for her own selfish reasons which only seek to destroy her even further. She will destroy you if you follow her."_

"Someone has to be there for Ty Lee, though." The mute nodded. He knew that to be true. Ty Lee would never abandon someone to their fate unless she had no other choice. She was too sweet and kind for this era. "But why do you care so much now? You never cared about me or Ty Lee in the beginning. What made you change your mind?"

The mute smiled. _"Love," _he answered. The ground groaned and the brooding weapon mistress was the first to see it. Cracks appeared on the wall and floor. The door clanked shut and he smiled at her. _"See yeah," _he whispered to her. He fell through a hole in the ground inside his prison.

Mai stared down at the hole in the ground form a moment before smiling. _You locked me in here, didn't you? _

"_I'm not gonna lie to you…" _Zentrai's mental voice range out.

(-)

The sun was setting when it happened. The ground shook like an angry tidal wave that bashed against the cliff faces. It growled angrily as red light seeped out of the cracks that formed. The ground was crying as the red energy seeped out and bashed into the sky.

But as the energy seeped out into the air, it was beginning to dissipate and turn into nothing but a red mist. The owner, Naruto, moved through the dark abyss that Iroh and Aang had used to get to the underground city. He moved quickly through the dark tunnel with a fast pace. By the time he reached the end, he had only spent ten seconds running straight down. When he came to the exit he wasn't shocked to see Iroh coming out of his restraints and not bothering to dust himself off.

"What took you so long," he asked.

Naruto canceled his energy and moved towards him. "I had to go to my village and give a report on a few things," he answered carefully. Iroh nodded and began moving for the exit that Azula and Zuko had used. He knew in his heart what path his nephew had taken. Though it pained him, he knew in the end things would chose the right path and continue on with his destiny. "I'm guessing you know that Azula is here in Ba Sing Se?"

"Yes. She has captured my nephew in her lies and trickery again. She is using him to win a battle she knows she cannot win on her own."

"I'm under orders to also not kill Zuko." _Though if I remember correctly that order came from you and hasn't changed since. _"I can worry about him later though. I just need to get to Aang and keep him alive. Orders have also been overwritten to capture Azula now. If I can get her out of here, I will. But otherwise I'm to leave her be. If she dies by the hands of the guards, it's not my fault, and the mission will be deemed as outside interference."

"I thought you were being ordered to keep her alive at all costs?" Iroh and Naruto moved through the tunnel with a hastening pace. They entered a large room, the same one that Iroh and Aang had stumbled upon before they continued on their way. Shadows moved throughout the place. "Dai Li are hot on their trail. We must hurry."

The two moved through the cave, checking ever tunnel and every cave they came across. Nothing turned up for them. They searched for a dozen minutes before stumbling across the scene. It was breathtaking in all right. It was a hero moment if there ever was one.

Aang hovered above everyone, his Avatar-State shinning like a beacon of hope for the world. His face was masked in a scowl, showing his anger. Maybe he wasn't the one angry, but a previous Avatar, Avatar Kyoshi, whom had trained the Dai Li to be who they were today. Maybe that was why he was angry. They had become corrupted over time, perhaps through despair or simply by always following the strong. His scowl never vanished as he ascended higher into the air.

From the other side of the room, Katara watched in her octopus stance, tears of joy streaming down her face. Even with all the Dai Li focusing on her, their eyes of hatred staring straight at her, she was happy. Hope had returned.

The Dai Li, Azula, and Zuko looked on in amazement. The Avatar-State. It was breathtaking and beautiful and powerful. No one could dispute him in this form.

Before it even happened Naruto knew it had occurred. Azula vanished from his sight for a moment too long and when he found her she was bending. She wasn't bending fire. He tried to move, but he felt like his legs had been filled with led and bent in to the ground to keep him from moving. And then it happened. Lightning left her fingertips. It cut a path through the air and struck the teen in the back. Lightning danced around his form and he fell from the sky towards the ground.

"Move," Naruto shouted to Iroh. Iroh was already gone, just like Katara. They moved for Aang, both heading out to protect him. Katara reached him first, her tidal wave of water surging her all the way to him. She consumed all in her way and barely managed to get to him in time to catch him. But she managed to catch him. "Katara! Run!" She looked up, sorrow in her eyes. "RUN AWAY! NOW!"

Iroh landed own between her and the Dai Li agents and began his attack. "You've got to get out of here. I'll hold them off as long as I can." He continued his barrage. He never stopped. Naruto appeared, tearing and slashing his way through the army of agents. "Naruto, go with them! That's an order!" Naruto tore two more agents apart before complying.

Katara used the waterfall to ascend while Naruto ran up the back of it where the wall was slick with moss and water. They reached the top just in time to get attacked from the side. Naruto moved quickly to help them, appearing at their side in a flash. The men that had attacked were quickly dispatched by Zentrai and Lyra.

"We need to get out of here and fast," Naruto announced. The ground surged to the side, throwing everyone to the ground. Ten Dai Li agents appeared, heads down and running straight for them. Naruto met their charge as Zentrai tossed two knives at the approaching agents. The two that were struck by the weapons dropped dead in their tracks and didn't budge. Zentrai didn't bother turning to tell shot orders to Naruto; he just jumped onto Appa with the others and took off. _"Get out of here as quickly as you can. I'll meet you at the wall." _Naruto's thoughts were picked up by Zentrai and the mute could only relay them.

(-)

Ty Lee looked to the open terrain as she stopped to catch her breath. Her hands on her knees and her form hunched over, she gasped hungrily for air as she looked for him. Her eyes soon landed on him… or rather it. The giant specter was back and moving at remarkable speed towards the final ring of the city. It was moving for the final ring and would reach it in a matter of minutes. She stood back up straight and started running again.

_I have to get there in time. _

(-)

"Hang on!" Sokka shouted. He pulled on the reins, pulling Appa higher into the air. Dozens of stones flew into the air, barely missing the giant beast they flew on. Toph was nearly thrown off as a result of the quick movement but luckily Zentrai was able to grab hold of her before she could fall off completely. Sokka didn't even know about this. He was too focused on trying to get everyone out of the city. "Zentrai, tell Naruto we'll make another pass to…" Sokka stopped and yanked on the reins, forcing Appa to jerk left. "Scratch that!"

"_No shit!" _Zentrai snapped back at him. He turned and looked over the form of Appa and spied Naruto running across the open plain with a dozen Dai Li agents keeping pace with him. _He's running out of time. _He turned back to the others and watched as Katara continued to cry over the injured Avatar while Kuei just kept hold of Bosco for fear of what was happening. Toph was now clinging to his arm while Lyra was helping in fending off any attacks that got too close them. _This is getting us nowhere fast!_

A giant bolder flew up at the face of Appa. Lyra jumped forward and kicked it into pieces. Dust and debris rained down on them as they plowed through its remains. Toph nearly screamed as a result from the sudden shock of being hit by earth. Lyra landed on Appa's head and swore loudly. "Somehow… this is not what I had in mind for protecting them!"

"_Would you shut the hell up? Naruto's running out of time down there and he's slowing down. We need to get to him fast before his time runs out!" _Zentrai was losing his patience. Lyra gave him the simplest of nods and turned his focus down to the running teen.

(-)

Azula stared intently at the wall from her spot on the train. _How are we moving faster than him, _she wondered. It wasn't hard to miss that she was actually moving faster than he was. She was nearly at the wall and he had had a two minute head start. Zuko was at her side with two dozen agents right behind them and four more pushing the massive stone train. She shoved it from her minds as they neared the exit. "Get into position! We have to stop him from exiting the city at all costs!" She barked out.

The agents all swarmed out of the stone train and into position with the other agents that had already taken over the wall. Appa came flying over them and five guards dropped instantly. Zuko moved to attack but was stopped by Azula.

"There's no point. You won't hit it. And they have Zentrai and the Demon Goddess with them. There's no point in fighting them. We just need to stop Naruto from getting away."

Zuko grunted and moved to the wall. From the view it offered it wasn't hard to see the teen. He was leaving a plum of dust in his wake as he ran for the wall.

Azula marched between the agents and looked down at the elite assassin that was running for them. "When he reaches the wall, attack him with everything you have. Don't be afraid to kill him. He's wanted dead or alive by the Fire Nation." They didn't bother replying or nodding. They were just focused on the task at hand. Azula smiled. _Now you'll die for marking me, Naruto. _

(-)

Naruto fought for a breath of air. It felt like his lungs were on fire as he continued to run across the open plain. The flowers and grass were up to his knees as he booked it through them. The smell was getting to him. All of his senses were maxed when he used this power, a draw back in his mind, but a blessing when he needed it. He needed it now more than ever as he pushed through the attacks the Dai Li agents were using on him.

Stones rose and flew at him. He grunted and flipped to the side to avoid them. The earth rose up when he landed and was knocked off his feet. He slammed back down into the ground as front line agents tried to put him down. The blond grunted and rose to his feet. The agents surrounded him and moved in to attack.

Naruto snarled at them and blurred around them. He was slowing down, but it was still hard for them to actually follow him so he was able to take them out without much of a problem. As their bodies dropped, Naruto felt pain ripple through his left side. Blood splattered against the ground and the blond dropped to one knee as he started coughing up more. His left eye began to bleed as his vision started to darken.

_I'm running out of time, _he realized.

He looked up at the wall that loomed in the distance and started running for it. More shards of earth rose to slow him down, but none managed to hit him. He may have been slowing down but he was still moving fast enough to avoid most of them. A few nicked him but none managed to officially slow him down. Agents that remained on the ground moved to stop him but were torn apart by his enhanced strength.

With each one slain five more appeared to take his place. Naruto soon stood in a heap of crumpled bodies and blood stained grass. He flexed his left hand and winced as he felt his muscles strain under the pressure they were put on. He flexed his hand though to fight past the pain. He shook it once and then took off running again.

Stones and boulders rained down from the sky, forcing the blond to evade them. He couldn't run through them like he would have if his speed was working like it normally did.

Naruto growled as he looked up. Hundreds of stones and boulders were falling straight for him. He moved to the left, jumped to the right, ran straight, stopped and then ran as fast as he could through the closes opening he got. They just kept coming through. The barrage never once stopped. Naruto was forced to keep running even as he started to get hit. He was thankful that the small ones were hitting him rather than the big ones.

But as the smaller ones locked on and struck him the bigger ones began to get lucky and start hitting home. A cloud of dust soon started to form over him as more and more earth struck him. Before long all that remained was a cloud of dust that signaled his charged. The dust cloud eventually came to a stop and it faded to reveal the teen lying face first in the ground. Blood streamed out of open wounds, marking him as the original. His clothes were torn apart, his hair stained crimson, and his left eye swollen shut.

"_Naruto!" _Zentrai's mental cry seemed to jar him from his state and his one eye began to open. _"Naruto, you have to get up! Get up! Get up right now!" _

"_I… can't move anymore. My… my body… won't listen to me." _Naruto's mental voice was racked with pain. Zentrai cringed and a wave of despair flooded the teen. Naruto tried to move but his body was locked up. He couldn't move. _"I used too much of my powers. I'm sorry but it looks like I won't be the best man at your wedding, Zentrai." _Naruto found that funny. It was a promise that when the war was over Naruto would be his best man. _I was stupid to believe I could save everyone when I couldn't even save you, Sasuke. _

"_Naruto, get up! Everyone's counting on you to get up! Think of what will happen to Rehka when she learns that you quit like this! Think about Lyra! Think about all our friends and comrades back at the village! Think about Jet and his sacrifice! We can't let it end here! You can't let it end here! So get up! I order you to stand up and fight!" _No matter what Zentrai said, nothing could rouse the teen from his spot on the ground. He was finished and he knew it.

A wave of despair flooded him as he felt his body begin to grow cold. Naruto smiled though. He was happy. He was happy because he could finally leave and be with his friends, wherever they were now.

"_So… that's it huh? You're just going to give up?" _Naruto's eyes narrowed. He recognized the voice, but not the memory. It was the voice of Sasuke. _"I thought you were stronger than that. I guess I was wrong. You wouldn't have even been worth my time in the end I guess." _

Naruto remained on the ground.

"_Naruto, please don't give up!" _Sakura's mental voice rang into his mind. Was this what death was like? When you die did you hear the voices of those you cherished just one last time? _"You have to get back up! The world is counting on you to change it. Didn't you promise Gen Fu that you would see his dream achieved?" _

Gen Fu's dream. Naruto smiled. His dream was to see peace instead of war. He wanted nothing more than to live hand in hand with others without conflict.

The blond growled as he worked through the pain to rise again. The Dai Li agents began their assault again. Pieces of earth were rained down on him from the sky, peppering his form. He struggled to move before finally getting through it all and breaking out into a full run. His legs burned from the pain and he felt his left leg begin to falter and slowly turn into a limp. He limp ran all the way to the wall. He had to get to it and get up the wall.

The elite assassin reached the wall and fire mixed with the earth to rain down fireballs of burning earth on his approach. Naruto felt his left arm get burned and he pulled out a kunai from his pouch. He jammed it into his mouth and held onto with his teeth as his left arm finally lost connection to his mind. He could no longer use the limb. It was officially useless to him.

He reached the top and a wall of earth reached up, blocking his ascension into the air. Two Dai Li agents appeared from the top of it and kicked him back down to the ground. The blond struck hard but rolled when he hit. The agents jumped off and soon circled him with Azula and Zuko standing side by side. Naruto just stared at them for a number of minutes before five of the men dropped from throwing knives to the head.

Zentrai was standing on top of Appa's head and throwing weapons at them. Half of the Dai Li agents turned to face the new threat. They were no match for the man. He cut them down until they got smart and raised a wall of earth to keep him out.

With little over half of her force dead at the hands of the mute, Azula knew her chances of capturing the blond were slim to none now. Naruto took one step towards her and crumpled to the ground as his left leg finally gave out. He couldn't feel it anymore. It was officially out of commission as well. Azula smiled as she watched him struggle to get back up. Slabs of earth rose and knocked him back against the wall. He screamed in pain as his aura began to fade. He was at his limit now.

Naruto coughed up more blood as he slumped down onto the ground. His vision blurred and his eyes stung. He couldn't believe he was at this point. Yet all he could do was smile like an idiot.

(-)

Ty Lee watched in wonder as the specter began to vanish. She blinked her eyes twice to make sure that what she saw wasn't an illusion or trick on her own eyes. The thing acted like it was dying. Normally when Naruto stopped using the power it vanished instantly, not slowly like it was doing now. She had been watching it as she ran across the open plain and when she first noticed the problem she couldn't believe her eyes.

First the whole left side seemed to sizzle and then slowly start to decay away from the thing. But those wounds were quickly healed and the thing went back on it's marry little way. After that the whole left arm and leg seemed to faze away, leaving behind stumps like the limbs had just been cut off. After a matter of minutes the thing reached the top of the wall, which she found amazing since it seemed to sit there rather than actually stand. After a while its tails began to fade away. It now only sported one and its entire body was begin to fade away. It no longer called out or roared in defiance. It just remained there until now.

Now the thing was nothing but a head that whimpered like a wounded animal.

After first she was puzzled by all of this before something seemed to give her a hint in the right direction for what was happening. Naruto was dying and fast.

Her legs burned as she started running faster. She wanted to stop this. She wanted to save him just for a silly question. She shoved the strange thoughts from her mind as she began to run faster. She had to see him. She had to ask him her questions and then figure out the bigger puzzle of her own questions. _Naruto… please… please don't die!_

(-)

Naruto remained still. He wasn't moving.

Azula approached him, a grin spreading on her face as she approached him. Zuko hung back to watch. This was the first time he'd ever seen him and he didn't know why his sister was after him. He didn't want to know either.

Naruto's hand twitched. A single Dai Li agent suddenly appeared in front of Azula, arms spread wide. Before she could speak blood splattered against her face. The agent had moved to protect her as the teen jerked to his feet and dug one hand through his chest. The hand had exited out of his back and was placed against her heart. She stared at the teen's closed eyes before cold steel entered her body.

Azula winced and then stepped back. Naruto's wrist blade had entered her body and she was bleeding, but not badly. It didn't hit anything important and she covered the wound with her own hand. Naruto remained standing though with his wrist blade dripping red blood mixed with a green liquid.

He started to laugh.

"What's so funny," she hissed.

Naruto looked up, blood pouring out his left eye. His eyes were red with slits in them again and the whisker marks thickened. "I win…" he explained. She stared at him as his once unusable hand jerked to life. "I win, Azula. You couldn't kill me. I found… found the strength I had long forgotten."

"What?" Zuko stepped forward just enough so that the blond could see him. Though Azula had asked the question, Naruto turned to him as though he had spoken it. "What are you talking about?! What strength have you forgotten?!"

Naruto smiled. "I forgot about the strength I had when I wanted to protect people I care about. I forgot how to open my heart to others because of this war." His smile fell and blood splashed onto the ground. He started coughing again as he slowly moved to the edge of the wall.

Azula turned to stop him but was stopped when she noticed the green liquid on the ground. It came from his weapon, meaning it was inside her as well. Naruto began to laugh as he reached the edge. The Dai Li agents moved to stop him but soon stopped themselves.

"I win because you lost to your own insanity, Azula. I win because you slipped up. That stuff is a powerful agent used to break the minds of our targets. I admit this to you because I've used it on others and watched people slowly become consumed because of their own insanity. You will, in time, become insane, Azula. I promise you that. And when you lay dying, I will laugh at you. I have seen your future with these eyes of mine, Azula. You will be betrayed by the people you keep around you. And when you die, you will blink stupidly because that's just what you are then. You're stupid." Naruto fell off the edge.

The agents jumped onto the wall but were all killed by a hail of flying weapons. Azula watched on as Appa raced down to the teen and caught him before he could hit the ground. As Appa raced back into the sky, brother and sister watched as the Flying Bison took off for the setting sun.

(-)

Naruto lay in between Zentrai and Lyra as they flew on Appa's back. "The Earth Kingdome has fallen," Kuei announced.

Zentrai had no words of comfort for the former King. There was nothing anyone could say at the moment. The loss of Naruto, Aang, and the Earth Kingdom was a major blow. The world would soon learn of it and the moral of everyone would plummet to new lows. The Fire Nation had conquered Ba Sing Se, but they had yet to win the war. They would never win so long as Zentrai and Lyra could draw breath. They wanted to make the dream of their former mentor come true. Even if they were the last ones fighting they would still fight.

Zentrai suddenly smiled as he watched Lyra stroke Naruto's blood stained golden hair. _"Why are blonds so reckless?" _

She stroked his head one last time before saying, "Because, they're the ones that always fight the hardest to protect those around them."

Zentrai had nothing to say to that but a strange flash of memories that flooded the teen. Naruto was alive, but his body was nearly broken. Zentrai wasn't a healer, but he knew enough to know that Naruto's muscles were nearly torn apart and that he was suffering from blood loss. From the blood pouring out of his left eye he could only assume that his vision had gone out in that eye as well. But somehow, with all of his injuries, Naruto was smiling.

(-)

"_Naruto," _Sasuke called out. The blond looked up at the raven haired Uchiha with a smile as Sakura, her hair cut short, stood beside him with Kakashi reading his porn in the shadow of a tree. _"Are you coming or not? We have a mission and you're goofing off. Come on. I don't wanna be late for this. Unless of course you're scared!"_

Naruto smiled and stood up. He cast a quick glance at the photo of Team Seven. He smiled at his scowl that was on his face, Sakura smiling, and Sasuke looking indifferent to all of it. Kakashi was standing behind them with a big smile under his mask. He was keeping the two boys, namely Naruto, from randomly attacking Sasuke at the moment.

"_Yeah, I'm coming." _He reached out to grab the photo but stopped. _"I'm coming guys." _He turned and found Jiraiya standing before him with a big smile. Tsunade appeared as well, along with the rest of the Rookie Twelve. More and more people began to appear and he smiled at them all. _"I'm coming guys, but please wait for me. Wait for me… just wait for me. I'm not finished yet." _He reached out and touched the faces on the picture before turning it face down. _"I still have a job to do."_

(-)

It didn't take long for Ba Sing Se to fall. Azula's agents worked quickly to bring down the walls of the city and let the Fire Nation storm through their streets. What Earthbending soldiers remained made a valiant stand against the surging army, but it ended in failure. The Dai Li agents worked quickly to take them down, imprisoning them before they brought the wall down. In less than a week Ba Sing Se had fallen under the Fire Nations thumb, leaving no hope left in the world.

With the fall of Ba Sing Se and the Avatar, the world soon began to fall on itself. News spread quickly and people lost all hope. What Freedom Fighters, rebels, and Earth and Waterbenders remained put up a valiant effort to stop them. But they all failed. The Fire Nation had finally won the war.

But even with all their new victories under their belt, hope still remained. Rebels and Freedom Fighters spoke of the great sacrifices the Assassins and the Avatar had given to protect the city, and with it, hope began to flourish again. They spoke of valor and honor and truth and beauty. Their words sent a calming message to those that listened to them. For even in the face of the impossible, a miracle was on the move.

"Bato," Sokka called out. The Water Tribe Warrior turned to the son of the chieftain. "We've secured the ship. Zentrai has confirmed that there are no more Fire Nation soldiers onboard. We've captured her. Now we just need to get Aang to safety and lay low for a while."


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 18

_Kunai flew through the air; striking the tree that Naruto took cover behind. He panted as he listened to the sound of laughter from the attacking Shinobi. _

"_Why don't you just give up?" He taunted. He grabbed more of his kunai and made ready to throw them should Naruto stick his head out._

_Naruto took a deep breath and raised his kunai. He had long since thought that people would get the idea of him never giving up into their heads. Maybe they weren't all that smart like he gave them credit for. _

_Naruto glanced at the smoke bombs he held. They were his last two and he was out of kunai to throw. He knew that if he could get a chance at him he could grab one of his and use it against him. It was a stupid plan, but it was the only one he could think of at the moment. He was hard pressed as it was anyways._

"_I'm tired of playing hide and seek," the enemy shouted._

_Naruto looked around the corner and tossed them at the direction the voice came from. There was a loud crack as the explosives inside the two small balls took effect and clouded the sky with a thick cloud of smoke. _

_His enemy was forced to take cover from the harmless threat, noting that his target could now slip away without him noticing or sneak up on him. _

_He turned and found his enemy running for him. He grabbed his kunai and slashed at Naruto's side, bringing him to his knees. He coughed up blood and gasped for air as Naruto's enemy stood over with the weapon pointed straight at his face. _

"_Give up," he ordered. _

"_Can I say just one thing…?" Naruto began to rise._

"_I don't want to hear it… Now die!" _

_Naruto's attacker shoulder tackled him, knocking the wind out of him as he drove the kunai into his chest. It was a killing blow and one that he had wanted to make sure was the finishing one. He pushed as hard as he could until his back was in the tree they stood on. Naruto gasped in pain and slumped over._

"_You should give up…" Naruto said. He exploded into a cloud of smoke. His attacker looked on in shock as he felt a blade pressed against his throat. "Trying to make me give up." Naruto struck him in the back the neck and dropped him to the ground. _

_He recognized it now as the Shadow Clone Jutsu, something that was famous for Naruto. He had heard he knew how to use it but never believed in it. _

_Naruto's attacker hit the ground and groaned from the pain. "E… Even if you kill me, another assassin will attack the village…" He laughed. "There will be no peace… as long as we live in this accursed world… of Shinobi."_

_Naruto said nothing for a moment. And then he finally said, "Then… I will break the curse. If there's such a thing as peace, I will find it! I won't give up!" _

_Naruto's attacked looked up at him, his eyes full of surprise. He wanted to believe in this man so very much that he felt proud to lose to him. A man that would search, most likely in vain, for what they all wanted had to be remembered for such a deed. It was a foolish dream to believe that peace could be found. _

"_Wh… Who are you…?" The attacker asked._

"_My name is-"_

There was a knock at Ty Lee's door and she nearly jumped out of her skin as a result of it. She hurriedly snapped the book shut and placed it hastily under her pillow before turning and presenting herself to the door as it swung open.

Azula pushed the door open and stared at the young acrobat with cold eyes.

Ty Lee couldn't bring herself to look her in the eye as a result of what had transpired but two weeks ago. She hadn't managed to look her in the eye once since Naruto had nearly been killed by her. She hadn't been able to look at anyone other than Mai and Zuko since the fall of Ba Sing Se. She hadn't been able to look at anyone in the Fire Nation other than those two because she knew that deep down they both hated this war.

But she couldn't look Azula in the eyes because there was something there inside them that made her want to scream at her. It was a twisted aura of hatred and disgust that mixed together and spat out despair. She had watched her hours after the incident with Naruto and the fall of the city as she walked in circles while muttering to herself. She was losing her mind. And now, with the yet unknown condition of both the Avatar and the strongest Assassin in the world, she was losing more of her mind with each passing day.

Ty Lee was no fool. She knew that Aang was alive. She believed he was alive because Naruto and Zentrai would have already surfaced again, making attacks on the Fire Nation like they always had before joining the Avatar in his quest to restore balance to the world. But they hadn't appeared yet.

And so Ty Lee averted her gaze, yet still, in Azula's eyes, looked at her.

"Do you need something, Princess Azula?" She asked in her chipper voice. She absently wondered just how her own aura looked when she lied and put on a mask for her friends.

"I was wondering if you wanted to come up to the Deck with me. Zuko is doing something with Mai and I'm through meditating and training." She left out the part that she was bored and just wanted to "talk" if she were to put it nicely for her chipper friend.

Ty Lee glanced around the room absently and then shook her head. "Sorry, but I'm a little tired. I haven't been feeling too well. I was trying to keep it from getting to you." She lied again. Azula bought the lie and left her to her own worries. She even shut the door on the way out.

Ty Lee glanced at the door once and then turned to the book that lay under her pillow. She snatched it up quickly and looked at the plain cover. _Legend of the Gutsy Ninja…_ she had been reading it ever since she had found it and found time to be alone with it. It wasn't her way of being closer to Naruto. She wanted to understand him and she wanted to understand why he cherished this book the way he did.

She found very few answers, but she found them in the book. Naruto, in the book, was someone who didn't give up. No matter how great the obstacle… No matter how strong the opponent... He never gave up. He fought on. He fought to the end until he couldn't fight any more or until the enemy was dealt with. He fought for the innocent and the weak. He fought for those that couldn't fight. And he made her believe that he was one that would fight until the bitter end for what he believed in or for the sake of his friends.

Naruto was just like Naruto from the book. He was the same. She felt like she could relate to him for what he fought for. He fought for his friends and for those that couldn't. He was the voice in the night that spoke out against evil.

But Naruto had nearly died as a result of what had happened recently. She didn't know if he was dead or not, but she believed that he was alive. She hoped that he was alive. She wanted to return this book to him and tell him that she understood what it meant. She wanted to give him the answer to the book itself.

Ty Lee opted for lying flat on her stomach as she opened the book to the page she left off on and started reading again.

(-)

The first thing Naruto felt when he awoke was pain. Pain that was so incredibly powerful that he wished for death. His entire body felt like it had been thrown off a cliff and then crushed under rumble. He could hardly move his body. He knew his muscles were destroyed, or they felt like it anyways. He had felt this sort of pain only once. It was after his battle with Sasuke at the Valley of the End. That fight had ended in a draw. Neither of them had truly won that fight in his eyes. Yet Sasuke had walked away while he remained unconscious on the ground.

Naruto pushed passed those lingering thoughts and sat up with intense pain flooding him yet again. He pushed through that too and reached up to his left eye. It was still there and when he closed his right eye he could only smile. His left eye still worked. So he was in perfect health as far as his eyesight went.

He threw the sheets off his form and stared down in wonder at his pants. He was wearing pants but he was also wearing bandages under them. He could feel them. They made his legs stiff. He sighed as he swung his legs over the bed and bit back a shout of pain when his feet touched the floor. Even his feet were sore. That was a new one for him.

He slouched over when the pain subsided and noted that the rest of his body, excluding his face, was bandaged up. He knew his arms and chest needed to be bandaged. He had been hurt at the end of the fight with Azula at Ba Sing Se on the way out after Aang went down. But now he was nearly out of the fight as a result of his own recklessness. He could hardly believe how beaten up he had gotten himself anyways.

_Some good I did in the end, _he thought depressingly.

He rose to his feet and winced only once as he made his way to the bathroom. He tore off the bandages as he did, making it easier to walk. When he finally reached the bathroom he was nude and standing before a mirror. He could see that his wounds were healed. No doubt the power of the Kyuubi and not the healers. He wouldn't put it past the healers for their amazing abilities with the human body, but his body was anything but human in his eyes. Because of the Kyuubi his skin would be restored to perfection each time he was struck.

"I had a feeling you were awake," A voice said.

Naruto turned his head slightly. Even that hurt.

Lyra stood in the doorway with a smirk in her eyes. Her one arm was resting under her bust. She was topless and sporting only a pair of bandages to cover up her breasts at the moment. Naruto was thankful for that, but disgraced to know he was naked in front of her.

She looked him over and smiled. "A bath has been prepared for you. Do you want me to scrub your back or can you do it yourself?"

Naruto smiled. "For as long as we've known each other, you've never once offered to do that. But I think I can manage. How about you help me catch up on what's happened."

"How long do you think you've been asleep?"

"Two weeks I'd say with the beard that I have." He rubbed his face, feeling the scruff that he now had. It felt strange having a beard. _I wonder if this is what Asuma-sensei felt like when he had one. _

She smiled at him and tossed a towel to him as he looked around. He wasn't in the correct bathroom and he didn't want to bother putting on some dirty clothes that were probably also blood stained. So he opted for the offered towel and followed her, with a little help, to the correct bathroom where a bath was prepared for him. Naruto discarded his towel and gently got into the bath. The warm water stung as he entered because of how sore he was. No matter how remarkable his healing factor was, pain was still there and he hadn't gotten over it.

She filled him in on the basics such as where Aang was and where Zentrai was. The main thing she hit was the status of the world. It really hit home for the blond.

People all over the world had lost hope. Only the Freedom Fighters had shouted out against the fall of the great nation, Ba Sing Se. Uprising had started to occur within the city walls, but those that rebelled were quickly brought down. Farms were burned in the hopes that it was diminish the armies and force them to start making longer trips from their bases, but that didn't last. New farms were put in and the Fire Nation also started pilfering the food and money of the scared citizens around them. Dozens of villages were finally uprooted by the Fire Nation as a result of this and the death count continued to climb to new heights as moral plummeted across the land.

Their fallen morals weren't lifted when rumors spread that the Assassins were quickly striking back. It was no doubt a ploy put in place by Rehka to boost morale and give everyone hope that someone was still out there listening to their cries of injustice. But no matter how strong her words were or the power of the rumors, no one seemed to be listening. Word had spread that the Avatar was dead, which killed more people than the Fire Nation. When Aang had been reported to have been back people had rejoiced, believing that hope had returned. But now with his demise people had once again fallen into despair and the world was falling in on itself.

Naruto sank deeper into the water until his nose was skimming the surface.

"Rehka has ordered that all Top Ten Assassins return for a meeting, but with Zentrai out right now taking care of Aang, we don't have everyone. And we can't send out anyone else to watch after Aang." Lyra explained. Naruto sank deeper into the water and his eyes glued to the bubbles that were floating around him in the water. "With you back on your feet, we were hoping you could make a few clones and guard Aang while Zentrai can return for this meeting. If that is possible, we would prefer that over pulling back a team or two to guard him."

"I'll make it happen," Naruto said as he leaned up in the water. She smiled at him. "So are all the Assassins present?"

She sighed now. "No. Ghost and Topaz have yet to arrive. Inferno, Kar, Blink, Reaper, and Blindside are currently here. Zentrai is obviously not here. When you are back on your feet completely, we'll need you to make some clones and send them out to retrieve Zentrai. We have his location and he's staying in one area for the time being."

Naruto stood up and cracked his back. Lyra looked around the edge where she had been resting. She hadn't watched him bath.

"Can you get my clothes for me? I'll get the clones ready when I'm dressed. And inform the others that I'll be on my way." The Rank Two Assassin said calmly. Lyra smirked and pointed to some folded clothes. Naruto stared at them for a moment and smirked when he recognized them as his assassin clothes.

(-)

If one were to ask what one thought of the Rank Eight Assassin, it was that she was childish in nature. She looked too small and too young to be an Elite Assassin, but that was what made her what she was. She was the Rank Eight Assassin, Blink. She was the smallest of all the Assassins and probably the scariest when she did her disappearing act. Her name was a literal thing for her. She had the ability to, more or less, "blink" right out of the room if you weren't paying attention. Some thought she was a sibling to Ghost, the Rank Ten Assassin, but that wasn't true. They didn't have the same color hair or anything and they acted totally different.

Blink was a five foot tall shrimp with a flat chest, tiny frame; young face, and blood red hair that was cut short. She almost always had a flower designed battle kimono on whenever you saw her. Her skin was as pale as snow and she was near quiet as a mouse when she wasn't being the main focus of a topic. For a while people had called her "Mouse" instead because of how small she was and how quiet she was. She was utterly the strangest of all the Assassins when it came to her looks. She looked as though she was eleven years old, but she was only twenty-three years old.

And if she wasn't strange for that reasons, it was the company she kept. Or rather… her brother figure she had.

Inferno, the Rank Nine Assassin, known for his questionable ethics on fighting, his berserker nature, and for his ferocious Firebending abilities, was her older brother. He wore golden armor shaped in the image of a mighty lion. No part of his skin was visible. Nothing about the guy was visible other than the suit of armor he wore. He was a total mystery to everyone but Rehka and Zentrai. His weapon of choice was a giant shield that was attached to his left arm and a sword that was clipped to his right arm. Never once had anyone seen him outside of his armor with the exception of Zentrai and Rehka, but some dared to say he wasn't human or even a male for that matter. His voice was too muffled by the mask he wore to make anything clear and since he stood nearly at even height with Lyra and had a strange sway in his hips when he walked, it was easy to understand just why people got confused about his gender.

The two Assassins strolled through the market, not bothering to reply to anyone as they walked alongside the famous Blindside, the Rank Five Assassin. He was more than happy to be friendly with anyone that they passed by and seemed rather chipper today. It was an act for those that were watching though. Only people like Naruto and Zentrai could see through his act.

"Everyone sure seems down today," Blink said. She jumped up on Inferno's shoulder, opting to hitch a ride rather than walk. She glanced at her big brother and noticed he didn't care. He probably could even feel her added weight anyways. She was tiny after all. "Do you think it has anything to do with the rumor that the Avatar was killed in battle two weeks ago?"

Blindside shot her a quick glance. She missed it, but he noticed her childlike face. It bugged him at times that she, a female that was twenty-three years old, could act so immature at times.

"They have heard of his demise and believe that this world has forsaken them now. The next in Nation in line for the cycle of the Avatar are the Water Tribes. Our resources confirmed that within the last two weeks, no new babies were born. If he were truly dead a new one would have been born already. But we all know he isn't dead. Zentrai is looking after him right now with Bato, Sokka, Katara, Hakoda, and Toph. He is still unconscious from his fight with Azula and Zuko in the caverns below Ba Sing Se. I doubt very much so that he will awaken anytime soon with the extent of his injuries."

Blink snorted at his comment and focused on Inferno as he trucked his way through the crowded masses. He was never one for focusing on other things other than the mission he was appointed to. If you gave him a task, he'd complete it and only it, or die trying. It was how he worked. If he was ordered to safe a wealthy person from a burning house, he'd save him and only him. He'd let the others die because he focused only on the mission. And it was because of that that he was the Rank Nine Assassin. So it was easy to understand why he cared very little for the mass of civilians that greeted them as they walked by.

Blindside shrugged and approached the Tower of Beautiful Women. He hated that name for it, but it was a request made by Zentrai to his adopted mother. So of course she'd take the name up. And there was also the fact that she was a former highly paid whore that gave her the name of the place.

He stopped in his tracks when he spied the Rank Four Assassin, Reaper, sitting on the steps with Hawkeye at her side. She was glaring straight at him and smiling too.

"Long time no see," A chipper voice called out.

Blindside and Blink whirled around to see Kar, the Rank Six Assassin. He was, without a doubt, the scariest Assassin in terms of looks. He was considered the scariest male for his appearance with Topaz, the Rank Seven Assassin, sporting the scariest female attire. His left arm was bandaged while the right arm was left bare. He wore no shirt, showing off his tanned skin, which appeared blood red from his time in the sun. Only small pieces of leather covered his top half, but it was small and nowhere near enough to get the job down or even truly attempt it. A wicked looking machete was attached to his back via the leather straps. His once white pants were now tattered and beaten and now crimson in color just like his short blood red hair. His blood red appearance was only half of what made him scary. What made him truly scare was his skull mask that he wore over his face to hide it from view.

"Kar," Blindside greeted warmly.

He was about the only Assassin that could truly stand the guy's strange sense of fashion and he doubted very much so that no one else tolerated him for his lack of clothing at times. The guy had been raised by a low class family, so he took whatever he got as an item that he would cherish forever. However, shirts were totally out of the question. He burned those.

The two shook hands while Inferno moved beside Hawkeye, opting to keep Blink safe from the mask wearing teen.

"It's good to see you again, Blindside. How is your father holding up these days?" Kar asked quietly.

Blindside ran a hand through his hair. "He's fine. He's worried about the state of the world now with the fall of Ba Sing Se. But I think we all knew that it would happen sooner or later. Nothing lasts forever."

Kar nodded silently and turned when there was a cough. Naruto and Lyra were at the steps now, both sporting their Assassin gear.

Kar greeted them warmly while Blindside made a quick remark on Naruto's healing ability.

"I am sorry to hear about how you fell in battle, Naruto. It is a terrible thing to lose a fight. That will only prove that we aren't invincible to the enemy." Kar spoke sympathetically. Naruto nodded in agreement. Kar patted him on the shoulder. "They may have taken Ba Sing Se, but they have yet to win the war. I will still fight so long as I am able." He smiled behind the mask and turned to the others. "Sadly, it would seem that not all of us are here yet."

"I've already sent out my clones to take Zentrai's spot in guarding Aang so we can all be here for this meeting. It should take them a day and a half to reach the ship where they are and about two days for Zentrai to arrive. They are currently docked at what remains of Full Moon Bay. The Fire Nation rooted it up a few days ago and has destroyed everything there. No one remained behind after they brought it down. They really did a number on it." Kar nodded in agreement. He, too, had read that report. "So all we're missing is Ghost and Topaz, correct?"

Reaper started cleaning her teeth with a knife. "Yeah," she said with the blade in her mouth. Naruto stared at her for a moment and then turned away. "So what's this meeting about? I understand that it was you that asked for it. So why are you summoning us for an important meeting now? Last time it was some stupid plan you had a few months back about taking out the Fire Lord Ozai. And you two idiots still haven't completed that mission!"

She laughed and was soon pinned to the wall by Inferno. Hostility aside, Inferno's sudden reaction to her words meant that he had taken that mission seriously. Fire Nation he was, but loyal he wasn't. He hated everything about the Fire Nation. It was how he was found that got a lot of attention by everyone. Inferno was twenty-five years old, supposedly, and had been found shortly after a major battle between the Water Tribes and the Fire Benders fifteen years ago. With no words spoken, Inferno had stepped onto the battle field and slaughtered everyone. There had been no explanation for his actions.

Inferno had come highly recommended from what Naruto understood when he joined. Inferno had been one of the strongest Firebender's to join the Assassin Organization. It was said that he was the strongest in their ranks. Though he was the only one to reach the Top Ten, he wasn't alone. Sparky was also Fire Nation. Den was Fire Nation as well. So despite being very quiet, he had backup from his Nation. Though people doubted he'd turn rouge on them. He was, after all, loyal to the Assassins, namely Naruto, Zentrai, Lyra, and Rehka.

"**Those who badmouth the higher ups will be punished,"** Inferno's muffled voice growled.

"Oh cram it up your ass," Reaper snapped.

She tucked one knee to her chin and kicked Inferno in the face. He didn't stumble back like most would have thought. He stared her down and then the mouth of the helmet he wore opened up. A bright light formed inside and heat smothered her. He was going to attack her, burn her even.

"That's not very nice, Inferno. Leave her alone for the time being." Blink stated. The mouth closed and tossed Reaper aside. "From the way I hear it, you pissed off Rehka and you very nearly got demoted. It would be a crying shame to have the famous Rank Four Assassin demoted for not being able to keep her mouth shut. So shut the fuck up before I kill you myself."

"Try it, shrimp!"

"Enough," Naruto shouted. He blasted a bit of his aura and the potential fight was averted. "This isn't the time for us to be fighting among ourselves. Reaper, you're a higher ranking Assassin then Blink. You will start acting like a superior and not an immature brat that believes females are the dominate sex! One more fight that is started by you or ended by you, and I'll destroy you utterly. Do I make myself clear?" She turned away, a smile playing on her face. Naruto blurred right up to her, grabbing firm hold of her throat and smashing her up against the wall. "You will answer me, Reaper. Or so help me God, I will break you and find a replacement for you, with or without Rehka's permission. Do I make myself clear?"

She nodded this time and was thrown to the ground. Naruto turned and stared at the other members. Kar, if he was smiling, was hiding it pretty well behind the mask.

With the crisis now averted, Naruto decided to leave them alone and find something to eat and check up on Rai.

(-)

Sokka cast his fishing line out and watched it plop into the water of Full Moon Bay with worry and annoyance in his eyes.

Things weren't looking good for them at the moment. They had recently taken over a ship, an unnamed ship at that, and had evaded most of the Fire Nations' Navy Fleet. A few had come by, but none had bothered them. In an attempt to keep Aang hidden they had moved to the ruins of Full Moon Bay in order to stay hidden and because no one would think to look in a place like this. To make sure the place was fully secure they had Toph seal up the only exit for the ship, the mouth of the cave while making a small passage just big enough for the water to cycle through and remain clean and clear for the time being.

Since they didn't want to risk getting caught by the Fire Nation while they hunted, they opted for fishing instead during the day and hunting at night. Shibaru had done some good in bringing back large wild game, but had otherwise kept it for herself as a result. Not even Sokka was brave enough to try and take it from her when she started eating, which just happened to be a lot. There had already been an incident with her bringing back a Fire Nation soldier, half dead, and still eating it as it screamed for help. Zentrai had used this to his advantage to get information out of the man, which was common knowledge at the moment.

And of course after eating fish for about a week straight it started to taste old. They were running low on food supplies as well. Tonight would be the last night they would have rice with their fish, supposing he could catch any that is, and they had no more herbs for tea. The ship had been partially stocked when they got it, but it had been holding forty crew members at the time and now it only held eight people if you didn't count Aang at the moment. So the supplies had lasted them awhile, but they were now starting to run dry.

They were also stuck in the dark as well. What light that they could afford to let it came from cracks that Toph had made to make it seem like a natural cave with only animals hiding inside it. Even the ship was hidden from view and far enough out that it was near impossible for anyone to get to without a swim.

And to add to their list of problems, the former Earth King had decided he needed to travel the world. He set off about four days ago with Bosco in a refuge disguise. Zentrai hadn't even bothered to tell him otherwise when he told them all about his great plan either. In fact he had seemed more insistent upon on it then the others had at the time. So with him gone and a complete unknown at the moment, it just meant more trouble in Sokka's eyes. If he were to be captured they might learn where they were hiding, which would end up meaning they'd have to move. And if they ended moving again it would make things harder for Naruto and Lyra to find them.

And the worst thing, which was probably the best thing out of all of this in Sokka's eyes, was the rumors and stories about Aang's death.

Sokka hadn't meant to sound so happy when he told the news to Katara and Toph. He honestly hadn't meant on sounding happy when he told them, but he was happy. It was a good thing that everyone believed he was dead again. No one would suspect a surprise invasion now with the Avatar leading the charge. Who would suspect a dead man to practically rise up from his grave and strike back at them, leading any army of Earthbenders, Water Tribe Warriors, and whatever friends they could scrounge up? They had already run into Pipsqueak and The Duke, both of which happily agreed to his plan.

But with the fall of Ba Sing Se, his plans were forced to be altered. He hadn't come up with anything yet, but he was hoping that if they could get around to it and send a small detachment to the Fire Nation to scout out a potential launch point, then he'd be set for their plan. One team would infiltrate the Fire Nation while the rest would go around the world and pick up their friends and allies from around the world for this fight. He was hoping to send Naruto, Lyra, and Zentrai into the Fire Nation since they had more experience in hiding in plain sight while he and the others of Team Avatar, as he was calling them, would go around picking up their friends and making ready for the invasion.

It sounded like a solid plan. But Zentrai had to be a complete asshole and tell him that his plan, while it had some merit, wouldn't fly. They were ordered to look after Aang. So if they went to the Fire Nation, Aang would have to come with them so they could keep him safe. If Zentrai was being hardheaded, he'd give him credit. But he couldn't think of anyone else that could protect him, let alone maybe keep him completely hidden as they made their way through the Fire Nation.

So right now he was at an impasse and had opted to do the fishing.

"You look like you thinking too hard," Hakoda announced. Sokka nodded silently as his father sat down near him. He looked out at the water and spied two fish that were cautiously eyeing the bait he had attached to his hook. "The fish seem to be picking up on your bad aura. You should calm down. It might help you catch the fish easier." He advised.

"I'm sorry, dad. I just have a lot on my mind. That's all." He tried to sound chipper, but he was too tired for it. He really did have a lot on his mind and he was tired because of it.

Hakoda looked out at the water while Sokka looked up at the few rays of light that poured in to the cave. They looked like rays of light that people spoke about when the world was an end and they looked to God for guidance. He had seen paintings of such a thing. It was usually people praying with a ray of light shining down on them. He wondered if this was one of those times where people would pray for a miracle and hope for the best or if it were the opposite. If it were the opposite, the lights would be dwindling until they were all gone, signifying that the end had come and that they never reached the end of the tunnel.

He looked back at the fish and sighed.

"I don't think I'm in the mood for catching fish," he suddenly said. Hakoda kept quiet as his son stood up. "I think I'm going to go check on Aang."

He pulled the rod in and began walking towards the ship. Regardless of what he wanted, he'd have to take a swim. So when he was close to the ship as he could possibly get on land, he jumped in and started swimming. They didn't have a spare boat for getting ashore so they had little choice in the matter. Not that he really minded anyways. He found some exercise out of it.

When he was close enough he grabbed hold of the rope ladder and climbed up it. Once he was onboard he was greeted by the sight of Toph and Zentrai sitting down and talking. Well Toph was talking. Zentrai was speaking with his mind.

"Did you catch any fish?" Toph asked quickly. Her stomach growled and she held it as though she were trying to care for a child.

"No. They aren't biting right now." He moved past them as quickly as he could and soon found the room where Aang was. Katara was with him. He was still sleeping though. "How is he?"

Katara brushed a stray hair from her eyes. She was still hunched over the sleeping teens' form as she said, "His condition remains the same. I've healed most of his crucial injuries, but the smaller ones are now at the risk of getting infected. I was all alone when I was healing him, so it will take me some time to get them all healed up." There was a ting of regret and sorrow in her voice. "I just can't believe that he nearly died on us."

"From the way I saw it, he did die. But you brought him back to us, Katara." Sokka put a hand on her shoulder and found a chair. He sat down and then looked at Aang with a sly smile. "He's going to question how long he's been out when he realizes that he has hair. You know that right?"

She giggled. He already had hair, which wasn't that strange since she had seen him shave it before, but now you could tell what color it was. His hair was black. And it already looked like it was a buzz cut from the way it was growing. She wondered what he'd look like with long hair anyways.

"I wasn't able to catch any fish."

"They've probably gotten used to your bait and need something new to eat at." Sokka shrugged. He was running out of bait anyways. "I'll try to catch some fish in a minute or two. You can clean them this time. How does that sound?"

"Fine to me, I guess. It's not like I have much of a choice in the matter." He stood up and cracked his back. "I'm going to go see what Toph is doing. I passed her on the way in here, but I didn't bother talking to her right now. I sort of brushed her off." He turned and waved to his sister as he left. Once he was out on the deck, he found Shibaru eating some large animal. It looked really tasty outside of all the blood that was now soaking the deck. "Where does she get all that?"

Zentrai laughed mentally. _"She finds it. She's a pretty good hunter when she needs to be. And she eats a lot to keep her energy up. I think she was trying to flush out that serpent creature an hour or so ago. She didn't get it."_

"That's probably for the best." Sokka sat down next to Toph and watched Shibaru eat the creature with utter joy. "Do you think the other Assassins will help out in our invasion during the day of Black Sun?"

Zentrai was silent for moment, and then said, _"It's doubtful that we'll end up going. I can think of a few that might disobey orders and help us, but they have their own reasons and they would be fully aware of the consequences to come if they did it. For starters, Ghost, the Rank Ten Assassin, would probably help us because he'd tell you he wants to end the war. The reality with him is that he doesn't want to end the war. He just wants to kill the enemy."_

"Sounds like an idiot if you ask me," Toph muttered. She was picking her nose. "Isn't that the guy you said was insane because of what he lost during the war?"

The mute nodded. _"Yes. Ghost lost a lot to the war and like most people, it affected him badly. He couldn't move on for a long time and then when he finally did move on it was because he had been forced to kill a few Fire Nation soldiers that were trying to bully him. The bloodlust consumed him and he became, in my eyes, insane with it. He wanted to kill more people while protecting the innocent. However, over time, that changed him for another way. He became completely insane and started to kill everything that attacked him until he eventually started to kill for the fun of it. He's like Reaper in the fact that he keeps items from his slain enemies. So you can understand now why he doesn't want to end the war."_

"If the war ended he wouldn't know how to live a life without fighting." Sokka said. Zentrai nodded and the young Water Tribe Warrior leaned back onto the deck. "I never thought about what it would be like when the war ended for those that had fought in it. I always thought that when the war ended we would all just start to get along and that would be the end of it. But now that I think about it, ending the war would be one thing while getting those that fought in the war to stop fighting and start living would be another."

"It looks like we always trade one war for another with the way you make it sound," Toph stated. She flicked her golden nugget blindly into the air and waited for the splat. There was none. "Well, I know what I'm doing when the war is over. I'm going to go back home, tell my parents what I did and make them see me as an Earthbending Master or I'll leave them again. They can't pamper me if I help bring down the Fire Nation. Even if I did it on my own they'd probably still pamper me. What do you think? Do you guys think they would?"

"_I'm not a parent, Toph. But I think I understand just why your parents did that." _She snorted and rose to her feet. _"They love you, Toph. And they wanted to keep you safe and possibly out of the war. That was the whole reason they went to all the trouble they did. Sure you're blind, but that has very little to do with it. You're their only daughter. Chances are they wanted to keep you safe because they felt like they couldn't have another child to carry out their legacy and keep your family alive. I mean, when you marry someone you will take their name, but let's face it, you're family's power and name will live on so long as you live."_

"And you think that because they want that kind of a life for me, that they would keep me locked up in that house?" She snorted at the very idea of that. "You should have been there when Katara was telling me that they needed me to rescue Aang from those idiots that had captured him. My father had told her that I was "Weak" "Frail" and "Helpless" with me right there! I proved him wrong but he still saw me as a child and that I was weak and helpless and blind. That's why I ran away from them."

"It's hard to believe that a parent can be that way, Toph. My dad left to fight in the war, leaving my family and our village behind for me to watch. It seemed so cruel and heartless, but I understood why he went to fight in the war. It was because he wanted to get revenge for what happened to our mother and because he wanted to do the right thing for the world. He wanted to keep us safe."

"_Rehka once told me that it was the previous generation that was supposed to make a better world for the current generation. With those words I felt peace of mind in the belief that it would come. But it never came. We got dragged into the fighting and the ones that will probably suffer the most will be us. When the war is over, those that don't have the strength to move on and live will suffer and repeat the mistakes of the previous generation. They will continue to fight until they are killed or have been captured and thrown in jail. I doubt that this war will end peacefully, and that the next war, the battle that will rage within us, will go away peacefully either."_

"You almost make that sound as though you don't have the will to move on, Zentrai." Toph pointed at him with an accusing finger. "Do you think that you have the will to move on?"

"_I do have the will to move on. It's those like Ghost, Reaper, and Inferno that I worry about. Inferno hates the Fire Nation, despite the fact that he is Fire Nation, and would probably continue fighting them even after the war is over. Reaper and Ghost would just go out and start killing people for fun to keep the bloodlust alive inside them."_

"What about Naruto and Lyra? Do you think that they have the power to stop fighting once the war is over?" Toph asked carefully.

"_They both have the will to stop fighting when the war is over. But I doubt that once the war is over that they will get much rest. Once the war is over you can bet that we'll be getting called in to stop the fighting in areas where people are still fighting. Naruto won't like it, but he will manage. He's always been a bit too peaceful for war." _The mute teen smiled. _"I remember the first time I met him. Naruto was so determined to not learn how to fight but he eventually had no choice in the matter. The war got to him and he had to start fighting. He's also been a fighter now as a result of it. He wants to protect people. So he will continue fighting until the war is no more."_

Sokka mulled that over for a bit and then sighed. "So how much longer must we wait before Naruto arrives?"

Zentrai shrugged and looked up into the darkness of the cave. He wondered when Naruto would arrive or wake up. No word had come yet if he was awake or not, but he was most certain that the blond would be up by now. He had been, to his knowledge, asleep for two weeks now. And he was most certain that he would be up by now.

Sokka got up and walked to the edge of the deck and peered out into the murky water below. There was just enough light in the area for him to see the fish beneath him. He really hated how they taunted him at the moment.

The water bubbled and then rose, startling him until he heard giggling. Katara was behind him bending the water with the fish in it. Once it on the deck and left flopping around, she smirked and said, "I caught dinner. Now it's your job to clean it."

"Very funny, Katara." He smiled. At least she was trying to cheer him up at the moment. "Thanks," he whispered. He grabbed the fish and walked to the kitchen on the ship with his prized meat.

Katara watched her brother go and felt a ping of regret for everything that had happened. She mostly felt bad for him because he had to rework his invasion plan a lot. Even with their father here it didn't make him feel any better in being forced to change his own plan up. He never did like deviating from it when he set it in motion.

"_You should give him some space, Katara." _She turned and eyed the mute. He was fiddling with one of his knives. _"He's a man after all. He needs his space at the moment." _He arched backwards and popped his back. The crack echoed throughout the darkness before it was swallowed up by the same empty space. _"He's got a lot on his mind. It's hard for even me to read his surface thoughts at the moment." _She glared at him and opened her mouth. _"I know you guys made me promise to never do that, but at a time like this, I'm going to break the rules. I want to make sure that no one is lying to me about anything since Aang is injured and Naruto is unknown at the moment."_

"That still feels wrong with you in my head half of the time."

"_That's your problem. Not mine. I'm doing my job. I'm guarding the Avatar." _

"Then why weren't you at Ba Sing Se when Aang was injured? Where were you?"

"_I was captured by Azula. We've been over this. And for the record, I also happened to be the one who suggested he come and stay at the Nameless Village, but you three said you could protect him on your own and it would be safer to stay on the move. As of right now, we aren't on the move. Aang is still injured. And I have no idea on when Naruto is going to show up or if he's dead. If he's dead, then you can pretty much kiss our ass's goodbye because the Assassins won't organize to help you in the invasion. Not that they probably will."_

"With the fall of Ba Sing Se, I wouldn't help out in the invasion either if I wasn't friends with you guys." Toph announced. Katara turned away, almost disgusted by her words. "But without your support, I'm not sure we could do anything. I mean, you guys are basically the sneak thieves of the world. You steal information and money in ways most people don't think of, and you guys can kill people from the shadows in ways we normally can't."

"_Even we are at a disadvantage at times, Toph." _Zentrai said with annoyance in his mental voice. It was felt rather than heard. Toph shivered at the ice that instinctively flowed through as though the world was cold now. Katara did nothing. _"Even with the fall of Ba Sing Se, we won't stop fighting. But we will pick our battles carefully, not stupidly. We don't have the power or resources to aid everyone in the world or that we come across."_

"That sounds so wrong," Katara snapped. She whirled around, facing the mute with hostile eyes. "I could never turn my back on people that need help. If I have the power to save lives, then I will save them. And if I can't save them… I'll still try. It's the right thing to do. And it's noble."

"_Even if it's noble, it's stupid." _She opened her mouth to speak her mind when he smirked. _"Even if it's noble, it truly is stupid, Katara. You can't save everyone in the world. You can't save everyone you run across. And even if you did manage to save everyone you came across, then what? Would you simply move on and believe that they will be alright from that point on? Bad things happen all the time to people. You can't protect them from every little thing, Katara. It's not physically possible. And, outside of being noble, it's also wrong. People make mistakes because that's the only way we learn. And you can't argue about that. You learned Waterbending on your own. So you know that mistakes are a good thing. They teach you in ways that no one else can."_

She snorted. She knew he was right, but there was no way to come back at him with a retort other than deciding to walk away as Sokka returned.

"Can you help me cook the…"

"I'll take care of it," she snapped as she walked off.

Sokka scratched his head. "What's up with her?"

"Sweetness just got lectured by Zentrai," Toph explained. She sounded bored again. "When is Naruto going to get here? Is he even alive? Can't you send Shibaru out to find out if he's alive or not?"

"Why send Shibaru when we're right here?"

Zentrai smirked and looked up into the darkness. A blur dropped down onto the deck, startling Sokka. Five Narutos were present.

"Sorry it took us so long to get here. The original Naruto woke up about two days ago and sent us here to guard Aang while you returned to the village for a meeting with all the Top Ten Assassins. Rehka has demanded it."

"_That means Lyra will have to be present." _

The leader clone nodded.

"What? Lyra is one of the Top Ten Assassins? How come you never told us?" Sokka asked.

Naruto, the lead clone, shrugged. "She was kept hidden as the official Rank Three Assassin because Zentrai, at the moment, is the Rank Three Assassin by everyone's common knowledge." Zentrai smirked and the lead clone stared at him for a moment. "You don't have time to talk with me, Zentrai. You have to return to the village now. You guys can start moving the ship out once we get Zentrai off it. So take care, Zentrai."

"I'll go get the others and tell them to get onboard." Sokka announced. He ran off to find his father and Bato.

Zentrai sighed and walked off into the darkness with Shibaru at his side. When the deck was officially cleared and the stone wall brought down, the ship surged forward and began crossing the ocean.

(-)

"You shouldn't continue to use your power like that, Naruto." Lyra scolded. Rehka was shaking her head as Naruto was bandaged again.

In the last few days things had started to get dangerous. Reaper was getting bored, which meant she was getting aggressive. It was one of the main reasons she was kept out of the village for prolonged amounts of time. If she was always on the move, she was causing wonton destruction elsewhere, usually in places where the enemy was. That was a good thing. But having her here and restless wasn't. It could be understandable if she were injured. But since she was here she was causing problems. And with her causing problems, Naruto had to intervene. And with his body still in terrible shape, his intervening was getting him hurt.

The result of this was him tearing his new skin which had yet to take full hold of him. So he was back in the healing ward getting bandages put on by an upset Lyra as she scolded him for his ways.

Naruto sighed and wondered if any of Rehka's girls were making Reaper do these sorts of things to make him use his power, which in turn made him take his shirt off for more bandages. He wouldn't put it past them. Lyra had already told him that two of them, the ones he had slept with after rescuing Rehka from the Fire Nation Stronghold, had been staying with him and sleeping at his side when he was injured. He really wouldn't put it past them to do such a thing.

Lyra punched him in the head, earning a snicker from Kar.

"Still having trouble with women, I see." Kar said happily.

Naruto stared at him and then laughed. Lyra didn't find it funny and hit Naruto again, but this with less force. It was a playful hit and nothing else.

"You're all bandaged up," she announced.

"What about my head? Don't I get some bandages for it as well? Or are you going to kiss it to make it feel better?"

She smiled but shook her head.

Naruto shrugged and jumped off the bed. He grabbed his shirt and slowly began to put it on as he made his way to the door. Kar turned and followed. Lyra remained behind with Rehka.

The two males walked in silence as they headed for the closest bar. There was one in the village that served good sake and Naruto wasn't about to pass it up. With his luck though, Drunkard would have cleaned the place out already if he was here. And if he wasn't lucky, well Den would be there with Larka and probably getting into trouble.

They found the bar and stepped inside. They weren't surprised to find Blink drinking at one of the tables. She was smiling and drinking at the same time.

Naruto ordered his drink and moved to Blink. She smiled at him when he was in eyesight and watched him sit down. Kar soon arrived and sat next to her. She scooted away out of fear because of how he looked. Even now he still had his ridicules mask on. Naruto took a drink and then looked at Blink while saying, "So how have you two been? Inferno I mean."

Blink smiled childishly. She was pretty carefree and it only got worse when she was drunk. "Pretty good," she admitted. She took another sip and her smile grew. "Inferno and I had to do a raid on a Fire Nation occupied village before we got the message to return. It was taken from the Earth Kingdom, but when we got there the place was utterly empty. It had become a Ghost Town. It sucked. Inferno was mad because he didn't have anyone to kill. So we tried to take one more mission but that's when we got the note."

"Sorry to ruin your fun, Blink." Naruto took a sip of his drink and smiled. He had always said he would never drink. He didn't want to turn in Tsunade or Jiraiya, but Rehka had told him about moderations. That meant he didn't live off the stuff. He simply drank when he was off duty. And he did it without getting totally hammered.

"It's okay," she announced between sips. "I'm just happy to actually have some off time right now. Inferno and I have been doing a lot of raids on towns and villages controlled by the Fire Nation."

"Speaking of Inferno, where is he?" Kar asked. "Usually you two are inseparably."

"Oh," Blinks smiled in a funny manner as she jabbed a thumb in the direction of the window. Inferno stood at the window, staring at them and probably thinking of ways to hurt them should they try to harm Blink. "Even though Inferno hates drinking, that doesn't stop him from actually being with me. And besides, he's been banned from this place ever since Drunkard pissed him off and caused a large bar fight. But that being said; everyone knows it wasn't his fault. But to keep everyone happy he opted for staying outside rather than coming in to be with me."

"And to think," Kar said with a smile as he tore his mask off, "everyone thinks you two are heartless murderers." He laughed and took a drink of his sake.

Naruto turned away like Blink did at the sight of his face. It was a hard thing to look at.

Kar had been a prisoner by the Fire Nation for years before he got away. As a result of being a prisoner, he had gotten scars from rough torture. And it was because of this that he was seen as one of the scariest people because his face was a mass of scars and burns from his time as a prisoner. It was the whole reason he wore a mask. He didn't like people staring at his face. It made him uncomfortable. He had once been what someone might have called a "Pretty boy" for his good looks. But when the Fire Nation messed up his face he didn't have them anymore. So he started wearing a mask after people started staring.

He finished his drink and put the mask back on.

Naruto still couldn't focus on him. "So how have you been, Inferno? I haven't seen you in a long time."

The armor wearing Assassin turned his head fully to face the high ranking Assassin and said, **"I have been well. But our missions as of late have been boring and tedious. I expected more of a challenge from them, but since they are all taking over Ba Sing Se, it would appear as though their main focus is on the city and not the surrounding villages they have captured." **

"Sounds about right," Naruto grumbled. He took another drink and called for a refill. As his drink was refilled, he turned his sights on Kar. "I think this will be my last drink."

"Why? Got a date or something?"

"No. It's that Zentrai is back now."

"How can you tell?"

Naruto chuckled and motioned outside. The three Assassins turned to figure out how he knew. All they saw were a bunch of girls, Rehka's girls actually, running towards the entrance of the village.

Blink was the one to figure it out first and groaned. "Stupid man whore."

Naruto laughed. "You know Rehka once said he wasn't a human. She said he was nothing more than walking, talking penis. I have to say that she was probably right." He paid their tab and quickly finished his drink. When they finished they began heading back for the tower.

(-)

Rehka waited patiently for all of the Top Ten Assassins to arrive. Of course Reaper, Blindside, and Lyra were already here. They had been sitting on the steps doing nothing but shooting the bull. They were even in their correct seats and making no fuss about why Lyra was among them at the moment. Reaper usually never got along with Lyra when it involved these types of meetings, but she was more than willing to behave just for the time being.

The door opened and Naruto, Kar, Blink, and Inferno stepped in followed closely by Zentrai. They teen was happily, if his face was telling the truth, talking with Inferno and Blink on something. Rehka smiled at his presence as they all got to their chairs. The only two that were missing now were Ghost and Topaz.

"I thought everyone would have been here by now," Blindside said calmly. The others shrugged having no idea where Ghost was. Topaz was a different story though. "Topaz probably isn't aware of your return yet, Zentrai. One of us should go fetch her."

"She's not a dog," Blink said happily. She was happy she had a high tolerance for alcohol or she might have appeared tipsy. She hadn't drank that much though.

"She's aware of his return," Lyra announced calmly. "She wouldn't miss his grand appearance when he screams his usual thing at people. Do you do that to get attention?" She was smiling. Annoying him was a great thing.

"_I do it for all the ladies in the world," _he explained.

"Charming," Reaper growled out.

The door was flung open and Ghost walked in.

Ghost was the only Assassin to hold multiple titles as a Stand Alone Assassin. He wore black baggy style pants and a shirt to match. It all appeared about five sizes too big for him. It covered his hands from view and his feet from view. His face, what wasn't hiding by the high collar of his shirt or the eye patch that covered his left eye, was creepy looking with the twin scars that ran down the side of his visible eye like a tear. His eye was golden in color with a red flick in the right hand side of it. But this eye was also threatened to be covered up by his dark brown hair that hung below the base of his neck. He had a deranged look in his eyes as he shuffled to his chair, opting not to pull it out as he sat down, but rather just stuff himself into it.

The door didn't get to even shut before the last Assassin stepped in. She was the most beautiful Assassin for the Top Ten Assassins as everyone had always stated. She was beautiful because she had a large rack that was barely contained by the strapless golden shirt that left no room for imagination with her breasts nearly bursting out of them. She had her arms covered by another shirt that wasn't connected to the other shirt she wore, this one being black with a gold insignia on it and a crossbow launcher on each arm. She wore a decorative headpiece that had two horns and four black eyes with a golden 'hat' that had a tail on it that ended right at the crack of her butt. To complete the image she had fishnet pants to complete the image with a skull belt wrapped around her waist. Brown hair and golden eyes with a tear mark under the right eye, it was a wonder people didn't think she was related to the hated Rank Ten Assassin.

Naruto watched Topaz find her seat before looking to Rehka. "Can we proceed?" She nodded curtly and the blond cracked his neck while nodding to Ghost.

"Ghost, Rank Ten Assassin," he announced.

"Inferno, Rank Nine Assassin."

"Blink, Rank Eight Assassin."

"Topaz, Rank Seven Assassin."

"Kar, Rank Six Assassin."

"Blindside, Rank Five Assassin."

"Reaper, Rank Four Assassin."

"Lyra, Official Rank Three Assassin."

"Zentrai, Official Rank Two Assassin."

"Naruto, Official Rank One Assassin."

"Rehka, Rank One Assassin. We are all here." Rehka turned her attention to Naruto, Lyra, and Zentrai.

Naruto held his head high. This meeting was his idea, but with the fall of Ba Sing Se, it was pretty clear that he wouldn't get to help Aang with the full force of the Assassins like he had wanted. Even though he was the official Rank One Assassin in terms of power to make up for Rehka's inability to fight, he had no authority over them to command them to do so. It had been this way ever since Rehka took over.

Lyra had always been the Rank Three Assassin, but when Zentrai stepped down and gave Rehka the position of power, there had been a major flaw with it. So to fix it, Naruto had stepped forward to take over the spot of the Rank One Assassin for his fighting prowess, but still retain the rank of the Rank Two Assassin, giving Zentrai the Rank Two Assassin spot. Zentrai was forced to keep up the act that he was the Rank Three as a result; causing Lyra to hid her true rank among their friends.

"Naruto has asked for this meeting to discuss information concerning the war." Rehka began.

"Yes. Yes. We all know that Ba Sing Se fell," Ghost cut in. "What I wanna know is when we're going to go kill the enemy and nothing else."

"**Keep your insane thoughts to yourself, Ghost." **Inferno cut in.

"The information that I was going to talk about did concern Ba Sing Se, but with its fall there is nothing to talk about." Naruto informed them. Blindside nodded with Kar, both understanding that the fall of the Nation was a big blow to the world. "There is, however, some hope that we can end the war very soon. As you know, I have been traveling with the Avatar. Some time ago we stumbled across a library containing information for a Solar Eclipse that will leave the Fire Nation defenseless."

With those words the members of the Top Ten Assassins felt their world rise again. An advantage had finally been thrown there way in a way that had never been expected.

"We could launch a full invasion on the day of this eclipse." Blink announced with a sly smile.

Naruto noted the balance of power that had shifted with one word. She was in for the invasion plan, but just because she was down for it, it didn't mean anything. Even if they all agreed, it was up to Rehka to allow them to all move out as one and take action in helping out with the invasion.

"We could use this time to our advantage and take them out in a single swing," Topaz added.

"**Or tear them apart," **Inferno spoke up.

"_No matter what we say, the final choice is up to Rehka," _Zentrai informed them all.

The leader of the Assassins nodded and leaned forward, intertwining her fingers together and said, "I do have the final say in this. Whether we go or not will be decided by the information you have regarding this whole affair at the moment."

Naruto nodded. He understood how much was riding on them at the moment.

"Before the fall of Ba Sing Se, the Earth King was going to aid them in battle. He planned to empty his city and attack with full force with the Avatar leading the charge. As a result of Ba Sing Se's fall, we have only a little more than a hundred to a hundred and fifty of the Earthbenders from the city that escaped as ordered by various captains that they served under. Only two high ranking captains, not the Council of Five, managed to escape the onslaught of the Dai Li Agents that remained behind."

"So the fallen Nation has some forces that remain, but not a lot?" Blindside asked cautiously. Naruto knew that now he was playing a dangerous game with them and nodded without hesitation. "I don't like this, then. Without the backing of Ba Sing Se's army, an attack on the Fire Nation, even when they don't have their Firebending, would be foolish. We don't even know how long this eclipse will last. What if it only lasts a few minutes? Then what? We would be at the mercy of an army of Firebending Warriors and their Non-Benders. We would be outmatched for such an attack."

"Not if we empty our walls to aid them or sneak attack them from a different point," Ghost cut in. His smile was sadistic and easily seen.

Naruto closed his eyes. Ghost was getting into his usual habit now. Any moment he would start making rude comments and try to pick a fight with any who disagreed with him. It was a terrible thing, really. Ghost was once, a very long time ago, considered a prodigy since he was a Stand Alone Assassin. He was smart. He could bend to any tactic that anyone threw at him. Sure he was a bit loony, but that sort of came with the world they lived in now. But Ghost, after years of fighting, just became what King Bumi would have called a "Mad Genius" with his fighting tactics.

And Ghost wasn't his only concern. Ghost and Reaper, two very dangerous Assassins, were also very sexist. Ghost believed that men were the superior sex and thought women were nothing but toys for mans' amusement. Reaper thought men were disgusting creatures and sex toys while believing that females were the superior sex. Naruto had lost count on all the times he had caught them actually fighting to the death over this where they were always trying to kill each other. Multiple times they had to be pulled apart and thrown in cells to keep them from killing each other.

And now they were in a room together, thankfully, or rather, hopefully, unarmed at the moment and discussing an attack plan that could very change the fate of the world.

Not a good situation for two Assassins that thought they were the better sex with it came to fighting, living, partying, and all around killing.

"As sane of an idea as that is, which it isn't," Topaz began calmly, "we would be at the risk of not having current information on the other forces. We'd have to rely on Messenger Hawks to carry letters to each attacking force that could be on the move. These letters could also be intercepted and easily cracked if they have a skilled cracker on them at the moment. Either way, there are far too many risks for this. I am personally against this."

"Pussy," Ghost shouted.

Topaz kept quiet and kept looking forward. She didn't dare meet his gaze. She would get locked in a fight and that was the last thing she wanted.

"We can debate this all we want, but we have a solid chance of hitting the Fire Nation at their home Nation for once and beating them into the ground," Blink said agitatedly. "If we move at the right time, put in some of our Assassins before the eclipse comes, we can take out a mountain of them in the confusion and maybe even beforehand to lessen the chances of a massive counter attack when the eclipse finishes. I say we go with this plan."

"_No," _Zentrai cut in quickly. _"I, for one, believe we shouldn't go. Recently, the Earth King had departed from the Avatar's group to travel the world in disguise with his pet bear. As a result of this, and what he knows, I find that if he is captured, which he might end up being, he would put our very plan at risk with his knowledge of the eclipse and that the Avatar is alive. With these two things to worry about, there is the chance that the Fire Nation might captured him and learn of this. There is also the risk of them already knowing, as Azula was posing as one of the Kyoshi Warriors and became the Earth King's Right Hand Man so to say."_

Naruto knew he had lost the battle now. With those two things weighing him down, they would never get to help Aang during the Invasion Plan on the Day of Black Sun. Even if he had the best of evidence that told them that the Earth King hadn't been captured or told anyone about the invasion plan, he would still never get the backing for this. It was a lost cause with no gain out of it now.

"We could always send a few of our Assassins out to thin their numbers to make it easier for their invasion, but we can't go," Rehka said softly. Naruto had nothing to say. "However, Naruto, Zentrai, Lyra, you are still in charge of keeping the Avatar safe. If he goes to battle, you are to aid him. I give you three, permission to fight in their invasion. But if things begin to take a turn for the worse, you are to pull out immediately, Avatar or no Avatar. Understand?"

"_We understand," _Zentrai said quickly. His eyes darted hastily to Naruto as the official Rank One Assassin gripped his head. _"Your clones are idiots!" _Zentrai suddenly screamed. Being a telepath had great things and then bad things. And Zentrai had just read Naruto's mind, which was something that the rest of the Assassins, in a meeting like this, frowned upon. _"We have a serious problem."_

"I got it." Naruto growled. "Four of my clones were just destroyed in an attack by another ship on the captured Fire Navy ship they have at the moment. One of them remains and is with Aang right now. Sokka is trying his best to keep him from fighting. He doesn't like the idea of not fighting to protect his honor or his friends at the moment. And from the looks of things, he's pissed about being told, by a chipper Sokka, that the whole world thinks he's dead… again."

"This meeting is over. Naruto, Lyra, Zentrai, I want you out of the village right now to link up with them and continue protecting them." Rehka hastily gave them their orders. They didn't stick around waiting for others.

Naruto was the first to get out the door. "Lyra, I'll get your things if you can go get Shibaru and Rai. Chances are they are eating Den's dead again. Zentrai, you're still packed, right?" He flashed his pack that he'd walked in with and nodded. Naruto knew that was a good thing about the mute. He was always prepared. "I'll get our clothes and weapons while Zentrai gets our food for the trip. We'll be eating on the run." They parted and began heading in their different directions.

(-)

"Naruto, also known as the Bloody Inferno, possesses some sort of Dark Spirits' power?" Zuko asked quietly.

Mai nodded slowly. She didn't like dragging up something like this, but Zuko had asked her, more like pleaded in his own way, for her to tell him why his sister had acted so bizarre during her fight with him. There was little he could do to understand what she was telling him, and she knew that, but she still had to try. Maybe she could make something of it all and help Zuko come to understand why she didn't like Naruto's defeat to Azula.

Zuko looked back out at the sea and grasped the railing. He stared out at the vast ocean and closed his eyes after a moment. The salt had never gotten to him before, but now, after being told he was returning home, it was getting to him. And the cold wind was, in his mind, getting far worse with each passing minute.

"So my sister hated him because he was stronger than her?" Mai nodded slowly. "And he was able to scare her in a way that not even our father could do? I find that part had to believe."

"You had to be there when he first showed us his power." She shivered. She absently wondered if she did so because of the wind or because of what it had felt like for her the first time she had felt his power. "It was… indescribable, Zuko. You can't explain it. Ty Lee tried to explain it to me, and the way she did it made it seem like we all had a different feeling course through us. It was scary to just be there in his presence. I thought I was going to die just from looking at him when he used it."

Zuko tried to understand that. Naruto had, at least it seemed like, been using his power right in his presence at Ba Sing Se. He had to have been using it. No human had eyes like that or could stand after taking a beating the way he had. If he was human and could still stand and fight after taking a beating like that, he wanted to know how and where he got the power from. He didn't want the power, he had enough of that as it was, but he was curious because it was so strange and alien to him that he wanted to know more about it.

The more he thought about what he had felt, the more he was pulled away from what he thought he had felt and to what he was making up. He eventually let it go and sighed in defeat.

"What about Zentrai? Is he some sort of a Dark Spirit or something?"

Mai shook her head. "No. He is far from a Dark Spirit. He is nothing but a super pervert that doesn't take things seriously. Ty Lee would probably say he's a showoff and a carefree person. I'd just call him insane and a pervert. I have no idea what Azula would call him. I do know that she'd call Naruto a Demon or a Monster for what he's done to her."

"The marks?"

She nodded.

"He did those to her?"

"Zentrai, too."

"Crap," Zuko muttered. He looked back out at the ocean and then shuddered. "I heard that a stronghold we had had fallen. Was it to them?"

"Yes. They killed everyone and got ahead of Azula's forces before they could get Rehka, Naruto and Zentrai's adopted mother, into the stronghold with them in tow. She wanted to control them through her and she was prepared for a fight. What she got was a slaughter. They got there first, killed everyone, and then waited for her to show up. She lost all of her forces and was marked by them. When we found her she was huddled in one of the cells that was soaked with blood and had a small blanket that was soaked in blood to cover herself. They stripped her down completely. She was shocked by the crushing defeat and was locked in fear. I can't imagine what she went through or saw when they attacked the stronghold, but whatever it was, it was bad."

Zuko stared at Mai for a moment and finally closed his eyes.

"Could the Fire Nation beat him if he attacked us?"

Silence greeted him.

He dropped his head and leaned against the railing of the deck. "So we'd end up losing a fight with him, no matter how many people were thrown at him? How can one person… have so much power?"

"Naruto is anything but normal. But there is an interesting thing that we all learned from him." She smiled and Zuko had a bad feeling. He liked Mai. He loved her. "He's got a heart of gold and he is very loyal to his friends. Ty Lee, when she spoke with Rehka while she was captured, said that Naruto was like a stream, calm a reassuring and easy to get along with. But when angered, he's like a rapid river, crushing and unforgiving to his enemies."

"Bust still… How can one man, Bender or not, have that much power at his disposal? Where did he come from? How come no one else has his kind of power?"

"I don't have the answer to that, Zuko. But I think if you want answers you'd have to talk to him directly."

Zuko opened his eyes. "That's impossible. He's probably not in a talking mood with the Fire Nation or with me given what Azula did to him and to the Avatar." His hands clenched into fists. He still didn't have the Avatar. He may have helped in killing him, but he still had lingering thoughts that he was alive. "Do you think my dad will be happy to see me, even though I don't have the Avatar?"

"I can't answer that. But I am happy to see you again." She pulled his face closer to hers and kissed him gently. He tried to return it, but he couldn't. He was too caught up in his own thoughts to do anything. She pulled back and smiled softly towards him. "I'm getting a little cold. I'm going to head to my room. Wanna come?"

"No. I'll stay up here for a little bit."

She walked off, leaving her boyfriend to his thoughts.

Zuko inhaled deeply as he tried to understand what she had told him. He could understand that even his sister could be beaten in combat even under unfair odds. But this Naruto could do it by himself and he wasn't a bender. He was, as Mai had roughly put it, a Dark Spirit in Human Form.

The young prince shook his head when nothing made sense to him and left for his room. He considered going to Mai's room but opted not to. It might look strange.

(-)

The Naruto clone sighed as he watched over Aang as the Avatar rested in his chambers. He was sulking in the corner, well on his bed, of his room. The crushing defeat he had suffered at the hands of Azula and the fall of Ba Sing Se were weighing heavily on him. Naruto could feel his pain. He had been there too and failed to protect the city. So he could understand just how Aang felt, but he needed to get over it.

The clone inhaled deeply as Aang shifted uneasily on the bed.

"I don't need you watching over me," Aang announced sternly.

"Maybe not. But my orders are to watch over you. I can't do that from the other room, now can I?" Aang kept quiet. "I know what you're going through. Believe me. I really do. I know my memories are a little fuzzy when I try to think back to what happened to me and my former village, but I remember feeling weak and powerless after it fell. I was there too, Aang. I was there when Ba Sing Se fell. So don't think you're the only one shouldering this feeling right now. I couldn't prevent it either."

"But you're not the Avatar. I am. I'm supposed to do bring balance to the world. I'm supposed to end the war. I'm supposed to be able to stop all the bad things in the world from happening. But losing at Ba Sing Se was the biggest mistake of my life outside of running away from my destiny."

"Destiny is just a word used when you have given in to the whim of the world, Aang. You are a man of the people. That much is true. You are the Avatar and you are supposed to bring balance to the world. But that doesn't mean your destiny is to change this world and make it better. Even if you somehow bring Fire Lord Ozai down, it won't end the war until either the Fire Nation is completely destroyed or a new ruler with a kind heart has taken over. And even then, there would be more hardship. Everyone is so used to fighting now that when the war is over, those that were fighting will still continue to fight because that's all they know how to do."

"You make that sound like everyone is born as a fighter and a monster."

"I have learned the hard way that humans can't change. People can change. Not humans."

"But they are one in the same."

"True… I guess. But you, as yourself, are very smart, Aang. Just because you want peace doesn't mean it will happen. Everyone wants peace. The problem is that we can't come to understand each other. We keep ourselves closed off from others and never let them fully in to understand us. Even I have that problem, Aang. I know you have it to. You can't deny it."

Aang turned away, offering no reply for that.

Naruto scratched at his head and leaned against the metal wall. He may have been a clone, but he still felt certain things that even the original did. He wanted to go back to the forests and run through them right now. He wanted to train or vent. He just wanted to break something. But he was ordered to guard Aang at the moment.

Naruto had a lot on his mind anyways.

The main thing on his mind was that his book was gone. He had lost it during the attack at Azula's place, which he had been reading because he hadn't figured on so many Dai Li Agents being there. He had figured they'd be trying to pin down the Avatar and make him surrender. That hadn't been the case. He lost his book during the fight and hadn't had time to search for it.

It was a time like this that he wished he still had seals that he could put the book in and return it to. But he had never done that because he was worried he'd lose the seal that held it, and thus, destroy the book. At least with the book out in the open he can have Shibaru or Rai track it down by scent. He kept it in his back pocket at all times, so it would smell something like him.

"Naruto," Aang looked over at the former Jinchuuriki. "I wanna go back and save them. I want to save them because I want the world to know that I'm not dead. Sokka said I needed to stay hidden. But I want to know if staying hidden is a bad thing or not."

"It depends really. A few years ago when my friend left our village for power, I chased him down. I did everything I could to bring him home."

"So would you go back to Ba Sing Se?"

"I would go back…" He exploded into a cloud of smoke, leaving Aang blinking.

(-)

Naruto grabbed his head and Zentrai stared at him with wide eyes. "You fucking idiot!" Naruto shouted. He punched his fist into the ground. "We need to hurry and get to the ship. We can't sit around and rest tonight."

"Why?" Lyra asked carefully. Naruto was pretty pissed. She knew he'd never fly off the handle and attack her, but he was pretty scary regardless.

"My remaining clone was talking to Aang about my past because he asked what I would have done at the moment. He wanted to know if I would have returned to Ba Sing Se to take it back. The clone said that he would have right when I destroyed him. Aang thinks we should go back. And with the way he was acting to the others about learning that he's dead to the world again, he thinks he's failed the world and needs to retake Ba Sing Se right now in order to show that he's alive. Chances are, with the way he is, he's going to go and try to take it back because he doesn't want the world to think that he's abandoned them."

"_We need to hurry. Naruto, run across the water and get to them. We know where the ship is. But it will take us some time to get there and you can't carry us. Leave Rai with us. We'll get him there safely. Just protect Aang." _

Naruto took off running across the water with Lyra watching him go while Zentrai procured their boat from the dock.

(-)

Hakoda had missed his children so much during the war that when he first got his chance to spend time with them, Katara, the one he truly missed the most, had avoided him and did everything in her power to belittle him when he tried to talk to Aang in front of her.

But now he was faced with another crisis altogether. His daughter was distressed because Aang had vanished while they were at port and had left to get food. Aang hadn't gone and with the Naruto clone not needing food to eat had decided to stay behind to watch him, only to vanish without a trace.

And now, his daughter was in tears, had confronted him, telling him how much she had hurt when he had decided to leave her and Sokka behind. She hadn't, or maybe she had, understood his reason for leaving. He had left to make their lives easier without the fear of the Fire Nation breathing down their necks. He had wanted to help end the war so his children didn't have to fight in it.

But now they were fighting in the war that he had hoped to stop. And now, after all this time, his daughter had spoken her mind and made amends for her wrong doings towards him. He couldn't blame her. He hated what he had done to them. Abandoning them to their grandmother while he went and fought in the war after losing his wife… It wasn't right. But he had very little choice in the matter.

"We'll get Aang back, Katara. I promise." Hakoda didn't know what else to say other than that.

"Thanks." Katara dried her eyes and glanced down at the deck. "We have to find him. He could be heading back to Ba Sing Se. They have a blockade right now so he won't be able to get through unless he tried swimming under it."

"We'll get him back, Katara. I promise. We will get him back." He embraced her again and broke it. "I'll let the others know about Aang, Katara. We'll start searching for him. You get your friends ready to head out in the direction of Ba Sing Se. We might have a chance at finding him if we split up."

"I'll tell Sokka." She turned and walked off.

Hakoda watched his daughter leave before her looked at Bato. "Get some of our troops ready. We might be expecting another battle. If Aang comes back, there's a chance he won't be alone."

Bato nodded slowly and began dishing out orders to the others.

(-)

Aang began to sink into despair as he floated on the piece of wood he had found. His glider was gone. He was too tired to keep going. And now he was losing a battle of his determination to save Ba Sing Se. He was defeated. He had been defeated by the Fire Nation twice. First he had run away from them to escape his destiny and then he had lost to them at Ba Sing Se.

But hope had struck him in the oddest of times. Deep in his despair, he had found strength and guidance from Roku and Yue, both coming to aid with words of praise and truths that he knew were true.

Roku had seen the war coming, but had never acted to stop it. He hadn't wanted to face his old friend and thus had let the war start after his demise. He could have stopped it the moment that Sozin had taken over the Earth Nation City. He should have put an end to it then and there. But he hadn't. He had let it go, sparing Sozin out of their past friendship.

Though Roku's words made him feel better, it was Yue that gave him the courage to face the world again. She was right when she told him that he had saved the world once already and that he would do it again. The cycle of rebirth made that possible. His previous lives had saved the world, thus meaning that he had saved the world. And he would do so again and again so long as the world needed saving.

With their words spoken he had made a large wave that would push him for the closest island he could get to. He knew he couldn't return to Ba Sing Se right now. He was too weak and he did need to stay hidden. All of his regret had been washed away by their words that he could face the world again.

Yue, using her power over the ocean, helped him by making a larger wave of water that helped push him in the right direction.

But now the wave was spent and he was tired. His wounds had finally taken their toll on him and he lost the strength to continue bending the water. His eyes grew heavy and the current began to shove him around in jerking motion.

Aang blinked water out of his eyes and greeted his teeth. "I'm not going down," he growled. His left arm began to slip off the log and he, with a heavy heave, pushed it forward onto the log. His breathing went rigid and darkness finally swallowed him whole until he felt the cold water push against his face.

He awake with a start and felt intense pain lance up his side. He was on solid land now. He could feel it beneath him. Anything was better than drowning at the moment and he knew he'd save wherever he was.

Aang opened his eyes and tried to get up, only to fall when the water pushed him forward, knocking his balance off.

"At least I'm on something solid," he said softly as darkness consumed him again.

(-)

"Get Appa ready for flight," Sokka shouted as he ran out the door.

Hakoda was right behind him, looking past his son and too the large beast that was getting saddled up by Pipsqueak and The Duke. He didn't trust the large beast that much, but his son and daughter had spoken very highly of the thing. So he had no qualms about them flying on it. Even if it did look very tasty and very mean.

"What are we going to do? We don't know where Aang went?" Toph shouted in annoyance.

"We have an idea. He might have gone back to Ba Sing Se." Katara announced fearfully. Toph kept her thoughts to herself for how stupid that sounded. "We just need to hurry and try to get ahead of him to stop him. It's the only logical place he would head."

"_Not anymore it isn't." _

They stopped and turned. Zentrai and Lyra stood on the deck with Bato panting.

"Sorry. They just got here and we were on our way to inform you that they know where Aang is heading now."

"What? How?"

Lyra smiled at Sokka. "Naruto found him on the Crescent island out cold but alive. He sent a clone to us to inform us of where he is. He's going to stay with him until we arrive. But we must move fast. Naruto said that Aang hasn't eaten and he might be injured again."

"Then let's hurry up. We can't waste time around here."

"We need a plan before we rush into this. Moreover, we need to know what you want to do about the invasion. The Assassins will not be aiding us this. Rehka forbid it. But we are allowed to help in any way we can so long as it protects Aang."

"Sokka and I discussed it earlier," Hakoda announced sternly. The loss of the Assassins was a devastating blow. Even though they would be having the power of the Bloody Inferno, Silent Death, and Demon Goddess, they would only amount to so much. "You guys will be heading out with Aang and the others to the Fire Nation to set up the rendezvous point. If you have any objections, speak them now. We'll be heading out at full speed once you guys leave."

Zentrai and Lyra shared a quick glance before shaking their heads. _"We have no problem with this. We'll be taking our boat to the Fire Nation. We have the perfect location for us to link up too."_

Zentrai pulled out a map and showed a small island at the end of the island chain for the Fire Nation. Sokka stared at it, taking it all down before nodding.

"You guys will need to move fast. If you're not there in three days, we'll press on. If you get there before us, we'll personally pay for all our meals in the Fire Nation."

"Sounds fair. Now let's get moving." Toph climbed on top of Appa with Sokka following her up. Momo flew up to them as well as the two Assassins jumped over the edge of the ship onto their little boat. "Hey," Toph screamed to get their attention. "What do you guys get if you get there first?"

"_Nothing," _Zentrai said back.

The link was cut and they went their separate ways.

(-)

Aang awoke to a warm cloth on his head. He groaned and sat up, finding that he was on the Crescent Island resting close, but not too close, to one of the small streams of lava that poured out of the volcano.

"You're awake," Naruto said happily. Aang stared at him. He was leaning against one of the large boulders and staring out at the rising sun. "I'd ask why you left, but I think I know why. So my other question is: What were you hoping to accomplish by heading back to Ba Sing Se in your current state?"

Aang held his side for a moment as his stomach growled at him. He hadn't eaten anything since he had woken up. He didn't bother thinking about how they feed him while he was out from his fight with Azula.

"I don't know." He finally answered.

Naruto looked at him for a moment and then looked out at the rising sun again. "I can't say I blame you. Years ago I would have done the same thing, Aang. I was stupid back then. I was chasing after something I could never have. It's to that reason that I grew up because I suffered a lot as a result of it. All of my friends suffered because I wanted to save a friend that had defected from our nation."

Aang kept quiet.

"You can't save Ba Sing Se right now, Aang. The world thinks you're dead and if you suddenly appear again you will lose all of the surprise for the invasion. No one would expect to see you rise up from the grave and fight for them again."

"But I don't want the people to think that I abandoned them. I want them to know I'm still alive. But…" the young Avatar's eyes bore a hint of regret, "I think it's for the best that I do die for them at the moment. I ran away in the beginning. I ran away because I couldn't face the task of being the Avatar. And then I lost at Ba Sing Se. I just feel like the world thinks I've abandoned them again. And I don't want them to think that."

The former Jinchuuriki looked away from the sun as stared at Aang.

"But since everyone thinks I'm dead, I have nothing to fear from the Fire Nation since they won't be looking for me, which gives us a chance to launch the invasion with me as the surprise."

"Have you come to terms with that?"

"I have. Even if it pains me greatly."

Naruto smirked and then looked back out at the rising sun. "Aang, when I was a child, I was told of a terrible curse I would have to bear all alone. I was the last of my clan's lineage. I am the last person with my power. There will be no others like me from this point on. I will die as the last of my kind. When I realized that, I was sad because I had no one else to rely on for guidance with my abilities. But I have come to learn that you also possess a power that marks you as the last of your kind. But the difference is that you have to keep on living to rebuild your race, while I do not. The cycle of rebirth for the Avatar cannot be broken. If it were to break, the world would be thrown into chaos."

"I'm well aware of that."

"So until this war is over, I have to ask that you not do anything crazy. Stay alive. My duty is to protect you, Aang. But I'm not just protecting you. I'm protecting the Avatar line. If the cycle breaks, my mission is a failure. With your death there will be no other Air Nomads to take up the next Avatar when the cycle reaches them. So please, for my mission and for the world, stay alive."

"I'll try."

The blond smiled and walked over to the young teen. "Come on. You're friends are at the beach. We should get going." He grabbed his arm to help him stand and walked towards the teens that were rushing towards. Toph had found Aang's staff and was carrying it, though it was broken.

Katara slid on her knees as she embraced Aang in a hug. She was crying and talking to him as the blond walked past them and looked towards the sun that now had fully risen above the ocean while Toph handed Aang his staff.

"We have to go," Naruto said quietly. He didn't want to ruin the moment, but they had to start moving.

Aang nodded and sadly looked down at his broken staff.

"I'm sorry, Aang. It seems like it got destroyed by the rocks," Toph explained.

"No. It's probably for the better. If people saw it, it would give away my identity. It's better for now that no one knows I'm alive." He gripped it tightly as he slowly turned and looked at where the lava was at its weakest before bounding up to it.

The glider was the last thing he had to connect himself to his people. His clothing could be torn and burned, but his glider was the real thing that made him feel close to his people.

With a heavy heart, he twirled it one last time and jammed it into the hard crust where the lava ran through it in a tiny stream. He left before it started burning.

"Let's get going," he said quietly. "We have a lot of work to do."

Aang glanced at Naruto, watching him jump into the saddle on Appa. He felt happier around the Assassin. He understood what it meant to be the last of his kind, just like how Naruto did. It took the pain away to know he wasn't alone anymore and that someone was always going to watching out for him.


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 19

"They're late," Lyra announced. She wanted to admit that she was worried, but her time as an Assassin prevented this. In the middle of a war as big as this one was she had never stopped to personally mourn for the fallen with the exception of her late grandfather. But right now she wanted to mourn for them out of fear that they were dead.

Zentrai stared at her with cold eyes. He couldn't believe how annoying she was getting at the moment. He wondered why he even wanted to have sex with her when she was this annoying at times.

His eyes danced to her breasts and then he remembered why. She had a pretty good rack on her and he wanted to see them without the bandages that she wore as a bra. That wasn't the best reason in the world, and he knew that it was just his selfish ways speaking on that, but he really did just want to have sex with her. She was hot, in a sort of I-can-kill-you-with-my-pinky sense. But more to the point; she was the only person that really got him as a person for who he was. She accepted everything about him, even if there were times she wanted to kill him.

"_I'm sure they're just having problems finding the island," _he sent to her. She huffed. _"I can't detect them, but we both know that Naruto can handle any situation they get themselves into. So let's just give them a few more hours before we depart. And even then, we should leave a message for them just in case they arrived late."_

"What sort of message would we leave?"

"_A coded kind that only Naruto could solve."_

"That's pushing it."

"_He's not that dumb. He has his moments, which I will agree on, but he's not stupid. He's pretty smart. And besides; he's got his own system for cracking codes that I leave. He can crack mine like you used to before I made you take over so I could stay out on the field."_

She huffed, momentarily accepting defeat. She wouldn't accept it easily though. She wanted to get a move on. She felt vulnerable as it was just hiding on the outskirts of the closes village in the Fire Nation.

"_They'll be here in a minute or two. Now if you don't stop panicking and talking, I'm going to shove something in your mouth that will shut you up and make you stop worrying." _His eyes grew cold again.

She stared at him and then glared at him intently. "Just try it." He produced a ball attached to a leather strap. "You touch me with that, and I swear you'll find out just how evil I can be."

Zentrai stared at the item in his hands for a brief moment and then at her mouth. She could see the wheels turning in his head and sighed inwardly before growling as he approached her with the item. She raised a threatening hand and then felt his calm thoughts in her mind. She reflectively blinked in hesitation because of this and was forced to quickly wear the item against her will as he put it on her.

Once it was tightly secured did she hit him in the face. Her fist connected with a more than satisfying thunk has her hard knuckles slapped against his flesh. His head careened to one side and he laughed mentally. She knew how bizarre he could be, and even more on how dense he could be. But he also had no limit to his perverted ways unless he was on a mission.

"Pervert," she grumbled.

"_If you seriously don't shut up, I'm going to not only stab this into your mouth again," _he waved the ball gag around, _"I'm going to stick something else inside you that will probably hurt you like hell."_

"If you even think about sticking you're…" Images of them having sex flashed through her mind and she felt disgusted and humiliated by it. His images were of her screaming his name and calling him master. She cringed and then stared at him. "You disgust me at times, you know that?"

"_I'm fully aware of that, Lyra. But I don't really care. You're getting pretty annoying as of late." _He shuddered as he felt her cold eyes land on him again. Why did she have to have that ability? Couldn't she just hit him and get it over with? _"Got something." _He announced. She stood up, ready for a fight. _"It's Naruto and the others. They've returned."_

She stepped outside and watched for them while the mute silently strapped the gag back on her. She made no effort to strike him for it. Instead she merely accepted it. It was either this or he humiliate her in another fashion.

A blur darted across her peripheral vision and morphed into a descending cloud. It was muffled as best she could tell but it was a talking cloud nonetheless. It swerved once and then banked down onto the coast and, with a blast of a wind, turned into Appa with the others riding on him. The landed and Sokka, quick to act without thinking, jumped off and put his back against the closes rock.

"_What took you so long?" _Zentrai asked. Sokka turned and started at him, motioning for him to be quiet. _"What's your deal?"_

"Hey! We're in enemy territory! These are enemy birds!" Sokka pointed to a few birds that were nestled above his head.

Zentrai sighed and killed them because they were "spies" as Sokka was thinking. The blood ran down onto his face and the birds dropped right in his lap. Rai was instantly on them, devouring the birds that were twitching in Sokka's lap. He screamed like a girl as Rai devoured the dead animals and almost him along with it when he started licking the blood off his face. Naruto approached him and helped him stand up to get away from Rai before he did eat his face.

"We got delayed because Sokka wanted to get higher so we couldn't be spotted by enemy patrols." He cracked his neck and back before continuing. "We've got a route planned out. All we need are some disguises and we're set."

"Why not just hide in cave after cave after…" Sokka stopped when he realized how stupid that sounded. Toph nodded in agreement. "Okay. But where are we going to get them? It's not like we can just go into town and buy them. We're still dressed like Water, Earth, and Air Nation warriors. We need to blend in, not stand out. Going in and buying new clothes as we are won't work."

Naruto nodded but they had another thing in mind.

Lyra removed the gag and said, "When we were waiting for you guys, we found a clothing washing store that handles cleaning clothes for cheap. We can steal some from them. They have all we need." She looked at the mute and shoved the gag into his chest. "I'm not wearing that anymore."

Naruto looked between the two. "Did I miss something?"

"No." She looked at him funny and then back at the gag that was resting in his hands. Zentrai was smiling. "I didn't have sex with him. He still remembers my name."

"I think the only reason he would remember your name, even after having sex with you, would be because of the fear of death." Naruto turned and started walking. Toph and Aang followed without question while Katara started giggling. Sokka shook his head and quickly returned to his senses to chase them down. "I know where the store is. So we should be good." Naruto told them.

(-)

The gang didn't like the idea of stealing. Well Aang's group didn't. Naruto, Lyra, and Zentrai had no problem with it. In fact they sometimes stole each other's items for kicks to see how long it would take them to look for it. It was game to them that helped with their skills. They were about to put that to the test again. Steal documents were one thing. Stealing clothes in plain sight was another.

"I don't know about this," Aang said slowly. He was regretting the idea of this already. "Those clothes belong to someone…" He looked out at the clothes and started trying to figure out which one would fit him and which one wouldn't. It was hard to tell from their angle and from the distance between him and the clothes.

"We don't have much of a choice," Naruto cut in. "I can't use Henge the entire time I'm here because if they touch it they would realize it's an illusion and not real." He looked out to see what he wanted.

"_Naruto's right, Aang," _Zentrai added. _"Besides, the guy that's supposing to be watching them is asleep. Would you rather have them burned or steal them? Either way, they're going to get destroyed or stolen."_

Katara made it clear on what they were doing and now important this was. "I call the silk robe!" She jumped over the rocks and made a mad dash for her choice of clothing. She yanked it off as carefully as she could and made a mad dash for the other side.

"Okay…" Aang didn't sound to convincing. "If it's essential to our survival… I call the suit." He jumped over and tore the items he wanted from the clothesline.

Sokka followed after him with Toph. Lyra grabbed Toph's clothing when she stopped to try and feel for what she wanted. Naruto grabbed his and Zentrai a moment later. Lyra was the last one to grab her clothing. Once they had secured their clothes they made a dash back for the cave at the coast and began changing.

Naruto was the first one to get dressed. He had opted to wear something close to an ex-Fire Nation soldier's outfit. Black armored with red trim coated his right arm and part of his chest and both legs. What wasn't covered by armor was covered by black cloth that was left was a size too big for him as it cascaded down his left arm, covering up his hand from view, allowing hidden weapons for him. He cut his hair short since he had let it grow out and covered the lower half of his face so no one could see his whiskers. He'd go into town later to get that taken care of.

Aang stepped out a moment later wearing students' uniform; dark black vest with red trim, a gray t-shirt underneath, as well as another long sleeved shirt underneath that with a red line that went down all the way to his hands, gray pants and black boots with red trim down the middle. He covered his arrow with a red headband that had a golden arrow pointing down.

"There," he declared as he finished tying the headband in place, "normal kid."

Naruto made no comment about that. Aang was hardly normal and the Fire Nation children were hardly normal either. They were like zombies that obeyed without question.

"Not bad," Lyra said as she stepped out with Toph.

Toph wore a simple soft red dress with a red and yellow long scarf which ran up and down her sides and was tied on the back of her neck. She was fiddling with her dark shoes as she fought to see the world around her.

Lyra wore a royal members' clothing; long satin robes as well as long red pants. She used a wooden prosthetic arm to hide the fact that she had no arm. It was concealed in a mass of bandages and a sling so she could seem like a Fire Nation Soldier that was on leave for medical treatment. Her hair was pulled back into a topknot and made sure to cover her scar that ran up her face with bandages, making her look like half a mummy.

Sokka was the next to walk out, wearing a dull red tunic and puffy black pants underneath that, as well as Fire Nation sandals.

"I suppose I should wear shoes… but I won't be able to see as well." She sighed and finally made her choice. She sat down and tore the bottom of the shoe off, letting it splat right into Sokka's face. "Sorry shoes!" Sokka felt the love from that. She stomped the ground twice and declared, "Finally, a stylish shoe for the blind Earthbender."

"Even if you wore the shoes," Lyra began. "I'd lead you around, claiming you were my daughter. You wouldn't believe on how well that plow works."

"How do I look?" Katara asked before Aang could make a comment.

Naruto had seen beautiful women before, just like Zentrai had. But he had never what he looked like when he stared at one. Looking at Aang right now gave him an idea as the teens' jaw went slack, his eyes bulged, and his face turned red. He turned away from embarrassment from either staring or simply being immature.

Katara wore a long red dress and a red single strap tank top that had midriff exposed. Her hair was worn up in a topknot while the rest of it was spread out and worn down, some of it in front of her as two large bangs. Still, around her neck was her mother's necklace.

"Oh…" Aang took notice of it. "Your mother's necklace…" He whispered. He wondered if she would believe that he had been looking at her neck instead of her breasts.

She cringed and then touched it gently. "Oh… Oh yeah. I guess it's pretty obviously Water Tribe, isn't it?" She gently took it off and placed it in one of their bags that they were keeping their former clothes in.

Zentrai stepped out and Naruto blinked.

He knew that Zentrai cleaned up pretty well. Being trained by Gen Fu caused this. He wanted everyone to feel clean even during training. He made them clean up before training and after training. It was an annoying task that paid off when they needed to sneak into some fancy place to kill someone or capture them. But Zentrai always had the alluring air about him when he actually cleaned up.

He wore a nobleman's outfit, long red satin robes with red pants. He kept both of Jet's swords on his side, a sign of nobility and of his rank as a military leader. His hair was pulled back into a small topknot and his eyes glistened with scorn as though he looked down on the rest of the world. Naruto knew it was fake, but Zentrai had a way of making it seem convincing.

"_I trust we're ready to move out?" _He asked through the mental link.

No one said anything. He motioned up the hill and they marched.

(-)

The town was small. It was just big enough to sport an academy for students and a shopping market for food and clothing and weapons.

Katara, because she felt naked without her necklace, went and bought a Fire Nation choker in place of her necklace that bore a ruby in the center of it while Toph bought a golden tiara with two tassels dangling off the sides of it. Sokka got a Fire Nation symbol for his topknot while Momo was stashed inside Aang's clothing.

"I used to visit my friend Kuzon here a hundred years ago," Aang informed them. "So everyone just follow my lead and stay cool. Or as they say in the Fire Nation, stay flamin'."

Naruto grabbed him before he could turn and leave.

"No." He declared. Aang glanced at him funny. "Aang, that was a hundred years ago. We've been to the Fire Nation enough to know that's a dead language. So don't bother using it. People will know you're not from here."

Sokka nodded.

"And besides, we've been the Fire Nation more times than any of you have and we know how to stay hidden. Just follow _our _lead." Naruto patted him twice on the head and then sighed. "We need to visit Leo though. He has my weapons for when we need to do something like this."

"You've done this before?" Sokka asked curiously.

"Yeah," Lyra deadpanned. "Though, this will be the first time in a year since I've been here to actually help out on something this grand. I mean, taking care of munitions factors and weapon factors are one thing... But this..." she shook her head. "This is something different. We've assassinated Generals and Field Marshals in the Fire Nation, but not anything like this in a long time."

Naruto nodded and Zentrai made a sideways cut motion with his hand.

"_We need to get moving." _He cut his eyes to the corner.

Some guards were walking through town and Naruto turned away to hide his face. His blond hair stood out and it was for that reason they needed to see their old friend Leo.

The guards passed and the blond sighed. "Let's get moving. If you guys wanna jerk around in town, fell free. Just don't do anything stupid." Naruto parted with Zentrai and Lyra and whispered to Lyra, "Keep an eye on them. I don't like the idea of leaving them alone in this area."

She nodded and merged with the nearest shadow. Naruto and Zentrai continued without glancing back.

(-)

"We're stopping at a meat place?" Aang felt more than disgusted by the idea of eating meat, but his friends, namely Sokka, were quite persistent in the idea of eating meat and only meat. It was a small store that sold only meat. No vegetables or anything. Just meat.

"Come on, Aang." Sokka deadpanned. He could smell it already. He wanted it so bad his mouth was watering already just from the smell alone. He could already taste it. "Everyone here eats meat. Even the meat eats' meat." He jabbed a thumb in the direction of a Hippo-Cow as it ate some rancid meat on the ground.

Aang cringed. It was nature's way, but he couldn't bring himself to eat meat. "You guys go ahead," he couldn't take his eyes off the Hippo-Cow as it ate some more meat. "I'll just get some lettuce out of the garbage." He motioned to a small alleyway where a few men were throwing away garbage, namely vegetable food.

Sokka shrugged and sallied on end with the other two following without glancing back.

Aang sighed and went back to his normal greeting, despite Naruto's protest to it. He stood his ground and said "Hotman," to each person that walked by. Some stared at him while others paid him no mind.

"Stop right there," A voice called out. "We caught you." The lead soldier with a gray beard strode up to him.

"Who? Me?" Aang pointed dumbly to himself.

"It couldn't be more obvious that you don't belong here," the soldier said. He gulped again for fear of already being found out. "Next time you play hooky, you might want to take off your school uniform."

The young Avatar blinked as he looked down at his attire. It hadn't really struck him on what he was wearing. He had thought it was a simple suit.

He chuckled nervously and the soldier grabbed him up and began dragging him to school.

(-)

Lyra kept a fair distance between herself and the guards that carried Aang. She could kill them now and worry about it later, but her mind screamed for her not to. So she kept to the shadows, watching and waiting for any sign of trouble.

(-)

Naruto stared at the entrance to the Medicine Man's home. He was the towns' healer that worked with medicine rather than healing techniques like Katara had. He was Fire Nation after all. But more to the point, he was also a sympathizer.

Naruto pushed the door open and stared inside. It was just like how he had seen it when they had gone to get the cure from him when Ba Sing Se had suffered at the hands of a plague that had no cure. Bookshelves were covered with tomes and other assorted books and scrolls. It wasn't cluttered. The floor was all wood and cleanly swept. There was no counter, but rather a desk that had vials with an assortment of colored liquids inside resting in holders, each stopped up with a stopper to keep the liquid inside and contaminate free.

The blond and mute stepped up to the desk and hit the small bell that rested on it. It chimed once and then twice when they rung it again.

"Come in," a voice shouted from the back. A door parted and a young man slinked through the open door. He had dark black hair with white streaks down the center and wore white robes with a black sash to keep it closed. His hazel eyes locked with the two and he blinked. "Lee? Hon?"

Naruto chuckled. Fire Nation cover names were pretty easy to come by, but this guy knew their real names.

"_We need some help." _Zentrai's mouth moved as he sent this to the man. It made people, with a bit of force on his part, believe that he was actually speaking, but in a hushed voice. It was something he had to use over here for fear of someone figuring out that he was a mute.

Leo blinked and then got by his desk. "Of course," he told them. He pulled out one of his drawers and retrieved a key. "Follow me."

He turned and started walking. Naruto and Zentrai followed, though inwardly they were concerned for him.

Leo's family had all been sympathizers since the war began. They didn't belong to the Assassins, but they sort of did work for them.

When the war had begun, Leo's great-great grandfather had spoken out against the war and had not gone to the front lines to help after the previous Avatar had been killed. His family had all been healers, or more to the point, Medicine Men. They didn't like fighting, but that was because they couldn't fight anyways. They didn't have the ability for it. They were smart and could make almost any cure for any ailment that they came across.

Because he had refused to help during the start of the war he had been banished from the Fire Nation Capital where he had lived and his license was removed so he could never heal again. He was detoured by this and quickly moved to the outer islands to continue his practice. And it was through this that his family had come across the Assassins.

His great-great grandfather, still wanting to continue his work, couldn't do it until he got his license back. So the Assassins had staged a deal with him. They would get back his license, and in return, he would aid them in any form that they asked of him. Payment was required on his part because he didn't want to do this for free. They got him his license and he paid a small fee for anything they needed.

And so through the ages it had been passed down from child to child. Leo was the newest one and although a bit strange, was very helpful.

Since he worked with medicine, that meant he also worked with poison. He was a Poison Master, but he never used his stuff to kill outright. His hands were never stained with blood outside of his patience's when they came in with wounds. He sold them poisons when they needed it and gave them cures as well.

And like his father and forefather, he used his own poisons on himself to build up immunity to them. His own father had started administering them to him when he was very young. To date, Leo was immune to over two hundred and eighty-nine poisons, which made it impossible for him to ever get sick.

He stopped at a large wooden door.

"It's been a while since any of you have been by," he told them. "You're lucky people think I have a weapon fetish as well or it would have been strange for me to have all this."

"I didn't know you let people see it."

"I don't." He pushed the door open and stared out into the distance.

Past the rugged landscape of trees, vineyards, and carols where various animals were kept was a large stone castle. It hovered over the landscape, casting an eery shadow that stretched towards them with the setting sun. It blocked out part of the sun as it began to set behind it and Naruto, for once in his life, felt scared about entering the place.

"Thanks for letting me live here, by the way." He ran a hand through his hair, sighing as he did. "But the guards were getting curious about why there are no people that live there so we had to get rid of a few of them."

Zentrai nodded without glancing at him. _"I would imagine so."_

How long had it been since they had returned here? How long had it been since they had come to the Fire Nation to kill a high ranking military commander? Zentrai couldn't remember. He had killed too many people in the war and all of them seemed to be high ranking military leaders in his mind.

"The place has been well kept since you left last time." Leo continued.

Naruto half listened to him as they approached the large gates. They were inscribed with gold writing and Lion-Turtle heads for the knockers. Naruto pushed it open the large doors and then stepped onto the grounds. The two followed until Zentrai took the key from Leo and approached the main doors to the castle. He inserted the key and listened as the locks all turned, unlatching on the inside. The doors parted as she shoved them open and they stepped inside.

They entered the grand hall and walked around until they were staring at a flight of spiraling stairs.

"Usually this would be the time I ask you about your mission," Leo informed them. "But we both know how quiet the two of you are about that. So I'll just skip it for the time being." He walked towards the closes door and shoved it open. "But I am still curious about why you're here this time."

"_We're here to kill the Fire Lord." _Zentrai said without a hint of sarcasm.

"Yeah… I've heard that before."

"_This time it'll be different." _

"Yeah… I've heard that one before too." Leo scratched at the back of his head and looked down at the attic below. It was very dark. "I've left things the way they were from your last visit. So everything should be where you left it, minus the key since you had to make me find it." He glared at them for a moment and then looked at Zentrai's left hand. He was holding it tightly. "Just don't make me look for it again. I really hated that last time."

Leo turned and stepped out of the castle, heading straight for his shop so he could get back to whatever customers he might have.

Naruto watched him leave before returning to a sound mind. He had things he needed to look into before they could depart from this place. And he, along with the others, didn't like the idea of sleeping in a cave.

"_Go get your weapons," _Zentrai ordered. Naruto looked at him funny. _"The door is unlocked. After all, you are a Royal Guard for an important family member of the great General that passed this land to me. It is only your highest duty to keep me happy and secure."_

"You're enjoying this a bit too much."

"_True. It's not every day I get to have this much fun ordering you around or act like a Fire Nation nobleman." _He snapped his fingers. _"Get to work, slave!" _

Naruto chuckled and descended to the weapon locker on the lower levels of the castle. He had a very special sword he needed to retrieve to make the family guard leader role look legit.

(-)

Night fell and the animals all went to sleep in their dens and burrows. The fire inside the cave where Sokka, Toph, and Katara waited was the only signs of someone still being up. They had tried looking for Aang after they left the meat shop, but never found him. They never found Naruto or Zentrai either. And rather than calling out to either of the three, they opted for waiting. They sat around the fire, listening to the embers crackle with life as they waited for Aang or Naruto and Zentrai and Lyra to return.

Toph glanced up as she felt a tremor run through the ground as something light struck the ground. She blinked until she recognized the person.

Aang stepped into the cave with soot and grime covering over face. His clothing was singed but okay.

"We've been worried sick?" Katara said when he stepped up to them.

"I got invited to play with some kids after school," Aang answered. He reached behind his head and untied his headband.

Sokka blinked and then rose up from his perch on the ground in a comical fashion. He went from lying down on his back to standing straight up. "…after what?"

"I enrolled in a Fire Nation school… and I'm going back tomorrow." Aang told him proudly, putting his hands on his hips. He seemed to be happy about his call.

"You enrolled in what?" Sokka asked again, throwing his arms down in disbelief. Aang nodded and he fell back onto the ground from the shock.

"He was captured by soldiers and taken to the academy on the hill for high ranking family members," Lyra announced. She stepped into the light from the shadows and stared at him with her one eye. "Come with me. We have to meet up with Naruto and Zentrai. They are at our weapon cache we have on this area."

Her eye cut to the young Avatar before she looked back at the others. She turned back to the mouth of the cave and departed with the teens following her a moment later.

(-)

Naruto ran a hand across the mirror and stared at his midnight black hair with blinking eyes one more time. He had dyed it black to blind in with the Fire Nation citizens as the leader of the Family Royal Guards. The process was hard, costly, and very taxing for the one that does it.

The process required a few plants that were used for paint and various chemicals that were used for poisons. Leo was one of the few people that knew how to make the chemicals that were needed to make it work and do it in a way that wouldn't poison the host. It would sink into the roots of the hosts' hair and last for two months before the roots had all the color drained out of the chemicals that were used.

He ran a hand through his hand and then checked it. It came back clean and not black. It had officially set in and would now mark him as a Fire Nation citizen for two months.

"_You look good with black hair," _Zentrai's thoughts were sent to him. Naruto sighed as he felt his calm and warming thoughts enter his mind. _"You shouldn't worry about the chemicals he used… it will pass in a matter of weeks instead. Besides," _he stepped up beside his friend, _"we have our own problems. Lyra has returned with Aang and the others and we need to explain some things to them." _

Naruto looked over his shoulder and nodded after looking into his eyes. Zentrai had a knowing look. He didn't need to link up with him to know that Aang had done something stupid or insane. Either way, they had to talk with them about the situation at hand that they were facing already.

Naruto reached down, grabbing hold of his sword that marked him as the leader of the guards for the Anming Family.

The blade of the sword was just under forty-nine inches, which was overkill in terms of length, but the blade was also a bit wider than normal swords, making it something that only a strong person could use. It the handle was nineteen inches in length, making the swords' overall length sixty-eight inches. It was cloth wrapped and didn't come with a sheath, as there was no way for Naruto to sheath it with the way he carried it on his back. The sword was gold and red with a tint of black running down the edge of it. There was no guard for it either, as part of the blade ran across the handle where he held it, shielding most attacks that would be presented to him in an effort to cut off his hand.

Naruto picked it up with one hand, a mighty feat to some that would have seen it, and slung it onto his shoulder. He always had to have his hand on the blade, not just as a sign that he was protecting them, but also to keep anyone from attacking them and to make sure he never lost it, as there was no way for him to sheath it.

"Let's get this over with," he said with irritation in his voice.

They stepped through the hallways and up the stairs that led to the main room. Naruto wasn't surprised to see Lyra already lecturing them on something stupid they had done.

Zentrai put a hand on Naruto's shoulder to stop him from getting over angry. He was already aware of what had happened, but Naruto didn't know what Aang had done. He was focused on the unconscious Leo that was on the ground. He wasn't actually unconscious; he was just lying on the ground.

"Why did you enroll in a Fire Nation School?" Sokka shouted.

Naruto blinked and Zentrai did the same.

"I wasn't exactly enrolled!" Aang defended. Naruto and Zentrai stepped closer to them in the Main Hall and stared at the young Avatar with blinking eyes. "Lyra said she saw that a few guards had found and captured me, and took me to the school so my mind could be molded."

Naruto stepped straight up to her when this was brought up.

"I stuck to the shadows as ordered, Naruto." She stated coldly. "If he had been in danger, don't you think I would have jumped into save him?" Naruto said nothing and turned away without a word. "And for the record, you should have told them you weren't a student, Aang. That was a big risk you took. What if they discover you're the Avatar?"

"What about that guy?" Katara deadpanned. "He attacked us the moment we stepped onto the castle grounds. He could be a spy."

Leo sat up, a vial of some sort in both hands. "If I was a spy for the Fire Nation working for the Assassins, which I don't and I'm not a spy, I would have called for help the moment I was through with Naruto. I did dye his hair for him and I'm one of the only people that can do it safely. And furthermore, I'm a sympathizer for you guys. I don't like this war any more then you do. So you can't say I'm a bad person when I've done nothing wrong to begin with."

"Yet you attacked us." Toph pointed out again.

"And you're point is?"

Toph stared at him for a full two seconds before huffing and turning her back to him.

Naruto shook his head to clear it and then said, "So you were captured and forced into a Fire Nation School?" Aang nodded slowly and the Assassins sighed. "Listen, I'm not happy with you, but I guess you had no choice at the moment. But you can't return to the school."

"But I learned about a secret river that goes straight to the Fire Lord's palace."

Zentrai shifted slightly. Aang gripped his head for a moment and then turned to the mute. _"There is no river that runs to the Fire Lord's palace. If it was a secret river, then you wouldn't know about it. And even if it was still a secret river and everyone in the Fire Nation knew about it, then it wouldn't be such a great secret."_

Everyone stared at him.

"_Anyways; you're not going back." _

"I have to go back! I'm having fun for once. I get to be normal! I have never been normal in a long time!"

"So you want to ruin our one chance at a surprise attack just so you can have a few days of normal life?" Aang nodded. Naruto looked at Zentrai and then closed his eyes. The mute nodded and Naruto blurred in front of Katara, his sword pointed straight at her throat. She gasped and Naruto said, "If you want to risk your life and our only shot at ending this war, I will not hesitate to kill either of your friends."

Aang was quickly on his feet, ready for a fight. Lyra encased Aang and Sokka in a block of earth while Toph was grabbed up by Zentrai.

"Aang," Lyra turned to face him. "We have one shot at taking out the Fire Lord, and you wanna waste the one chance we have so you can be normal. You can be normal when the war is over. Right now, this war has enough dead heroes. It needs living heroes now, Aang. We're not giving you a choice in the matter at hand. You're going to remain hidden from the world until the day of Black Sun. If you even try to do anything that could halter our advance towards victory, we'll break your neck and anyone else that tries to attack us. You're not as valuable as you think you are."

"I'm the last of the Air Nomads. Without me, there will be no one else to teach the next Avatar Airbending. You can't kill me. I need a chance in life to reproduce my people."

"_You think that just because you're the last Air Nomad, we won't kill you?" _Aang's blood ran cold for a moment. _"Aang, when the Fire Nation destroyed the Air Temples, we raided them for anything that could be salvaged. We have more than enough Airbending scrolls to teach the next Avatar should you die. You're not as valuable as you think you are. So don't think you have any real leverage over us at the moment." _The mute lied, but there was no way to tell with his way of speaking. And with a straight poker face, it was harder to tell either way.

For a few minutes there was nothing but silence before Toph broke it. "I just want to teach Aang Earthbending. That's the only reason I'm here. And besides," he grabbed Zentrai's arm and tore herself away from him, "I have no intention of dying in this stupid war. I just want to end it. Aang, they're right. You can't be doing this."

"Let's put it to a vote," Aang bargained.

"No." Naruto put his weapon on his shoulder and closed his eyes. "We're not putting this to a vote. You're not going back to school. As soon as dawn comes, we're heading out."

"You have no say in what we do." Aang smirked. "You're supposed to guard me. You can do that much as even at the school. Besides, I'm the Avatar. I have more say-so in my life and the life of my friends than you do."

Naruto wanted to punch him but opted not to. He shared a quick glance with Lyra and Zentrai. The two shrugged. They truthfully could order Aang to do anything they didn't want him to do so long as his safety was in order. Orders were orders and Aang did need some normalcy, but they didn't have time for it. And so long as he was happy it made things easier for them. But they could still use lethal force to get him to listen if they had no other choice. The fact that Naruto had a sword at Katara's throat was just further proof.

"Fine," he grumbled. "But if you get in trouble, we're pulling you out and leaving this place. If we have to level the entire place, we'll do that too."

"Alright!" Aang jumped for joy and then paused. "Do you guys really have Airbending scrolls?"

"_Yes." _Aang stared at him. _"And you can't have them. They belong to us now. Now I'll see you to your rooms. We have a busy day tomorrow anyways." _

With that they were lead to their rooms for the night.

(-)

A shadow moved across the darkness, black on black as it stalked towards the looming building of stone. It was the prison, a maximum security one that was built directly inside the capital of the Fire Nation. It was used to hold people that were needed for interrogation and to ensure that no one could get to them and rescue them.

But it wasn't holding anyone truly important right now. It wasn't holding someone that could give them any useful information that they knew of. He knew a lot of things, probably more than what anyone could truly guess, but nothing would make sense to them.

The guard that was on duty, however, didn't truly care about him or anyone else that they had inside the prison. From his perch on the wall he could see the shadow moving against the darkness.

"You again," he shouted. He stood his ground, spear in hand as the cloaked figure moved across the open terrain in a few powerful strides. "Stop right there, whoever you are!" The hooded figure raised his head just enough for a familiar scar to be seen. His eyes widened. "Prince Zuko?"

The Fire Nation Prince reached out and grabbed him by his uniform. The man gasped in shock as he felt the cold earth get pressed against his back as he was pushed into it. "I'm going in for a visit. You stand guard here. And no one, no one's, going to know about this." He let go and the guard dropped.

Zuko walked in silent, never once looking back at the guard that was left confused.

He stalked through the dark halls, passing a few of the inmates that looked at him with scrutinizing eyes. Zuko knew a few of them. They were sympathizers in the war that didn't like the idea of fighting anymore. There were a few that had gone AWOL and there was a few that were used as leverage over others that they needed to work for them.

He stopped at Iroh's cell and stared at him for a moment.

"Uncle," he pulled his hood back, "it's me."

Iroh turned away in response and Zuko felt his heart fall a bit. He sat down cross-legged and decided to try and reason with him anyways. He had to try it regardless.

Zuko waited for a long time before speaking. He had thought that Iroh would turn and great him, speak with him even, and return to his normal life style around him.

"You brought this on yourself, you know?" Iroh said nothing. "We could have returned together. You could have been a hero!" Iroh closed his eyes but said nothing. "You have no right to judge me, Uncle. I did what I had to do in Ba Sing Se and you're a fool for not joining me!" Iroh said nothing still. "You're not going to say anything?"

The silence began to irritate him. He ground his teeth as he waited for a reply. Waiting wasn't his strong suit. He had little patience. That was just his nature. But with Iroh he had tried to reason with him, be patience around him. They had gone through a lot since his banishment. But now he wasn't so sure that banishment, at least with him, had done him any good. He looked up to the man, even if he could never admit to it.

His anger consumed him and he kicked a stool in his rage. It smacked against the stone walls and he punched it for the pain it caused him when he kicked it and for his pent up anger. A blast of fire and it was turned into slag that hissed and popped on the ground.

"You're crazy. You're a crazy old man, and if you weren't in jail, you'd be sleeping in a gutter!"

He turned snorted at him and stormed out, slamming the door shut on the way.

Iroh closed his eyes, accepting the momentary victory at the moment. He was sad to do this, but he had to do it. He still had a few things to teach him, but he couldn't do them now. Zuko would have to suffer and struggle on his own, and for once Iroh felt powerless again, knowing that he could do nothing to help him other than stay away from him.

(-)

There was no way to avoid it. The three Assassins had no choice but to head out and watch Aang to make sure he didn't get himself killed or worse found out. If the world knew that the Avatar was back then their sneak attack would ultimately fall through in their minds.

"Why do you carry that large sword around?"

Naruto glanced up and over. Toph was standing next to him. She was just barely tall enough to not be seen from their perch on the rocks that overlooked the school. Naruto, who was much taller, had to crouch and belly crawl just to look over the edge for fear of being seen. Toph didn't. And she had her unique way of "Seeing" to help her.

"I only use it for when I have to come here in disguise. Since I'm the leader of the guards for our made up family, I have to carry something unique that signifies it. I was given the sword by a friend. He lives here in the Fire Nation. If we're lucky and we have time, we might stop by and see him. Chances are one of my friends might be here too. I'm sure he would enjoy giving me another crash course lesson on how to use a sword since I have no earthly idea on how to properly use one."

"Then why carry it?"

"For starters," Naruto turned over and grabbed the handle. He raised it to her tiny hand. She could barely wrap her one hand around the hilt. "The sword weighs a good twenty pounds, overkill for something like this. But all Fire Nation soldiers, mostly their special teams, carry unique weapons that are both large and heavy. They are elegant too, so this takes both styles into one to show that I'm an Elite Soldier and that I'm the leader of the Royal Guards for our little family. All high ranking soldiers or guards have something that shows their status. Mine is the sword that I use like a club."

He turned back over and looked down at the growing crowd of kids. They were either being let out to eat or to get off for the day. Naruto had never done any checking to see what their times were for class and what not. He had no idea on how they ran things either.

Toph huffed from boredom and sat down next to him.

"Why did you agree to protect Aang?"

Naruto gave her a quick glance and then shrugged.

"Did you start protecting him because you thought he could help you end the war?"

"This war won't end unless the Avatar stops the Fire Lord. Even if we assassinated the Fire Lord, a new leader would come to power. Even though Zuko was banished and has returned, there is more of a chance that Azula will get it instead."

"Why? That doesn't make much sense? And what would it matter?"

Naruto thought about it for a moment and then said, "Zuko is… not like the other Fire Nation citizens or soldiers. Iroh, you remember him, right?" She nodded. "Iroh is someone that I know because I had a run in with him years ago. He told me about Zuko and how he was a good person, but confused. He's had a difficult life. He's had to struggle for everything. His banishment also nearly did him in, but Iroh believes that there is good still in him and that he is just confused by it all. If Zuko were to become the next Fire Lord, things would be different."

"And what makes you so sure about that?"

"He's seen the outside world." Naruto stood up and looked down at the citizens below. "I really hope we don't have to make everyone disappear from here. I don't like the idea of making small towns vanish in the night."

"You say that like you've done it before." She got no reply. Naruto was already on the move and she was forced to follow.

(-)

It was time for lunch.

Students ran hurriedly to find a place to eat. Some walked with friends, others walked by themselves. Aang was among the few that walked by themselves and was rather proud to have gotten through yet another day of school without incident.

"Hey, Kuzon," a voice said. He nervously smiled as he turned to face the girl. He didn't know her that well, but she was very nice and sweet. "I really like that crazy dance you were doing."

He smiled, his grin threatening to split his face in two. She was talking about the incident during Music Class where he was seen moving his feet to the music they were all playing. He admitted to not being very good at playing the Tsungi Hornist, but he had at least tried and he had started dancing to the tune they were playing.

"Thanks, On Ji." He stopped and smiled at her. "I could show it to you later if you'd like."

A blast of fire washed over him, but missed burning him. It was a warning shot and nothing more. Aang stepped back on instinct and was quick to hide his battle instincts as he stared dumbly at the attacker.

"What did you say, colony trash?" It was Hide. He stomped his way to the two and hastily wrapped an arm around On Ji. From the way she went rigid it was easy to tell that she did not like him. "You were going to show her something?"

"Just some dance moves."

"Nobody shows On Ji anything. Especially movements."

He lunged at Aang who sidestepped him. A group of students that had saw the fire blast came running up, forming a circle around the two fighters. No matter where you were or what school you attended, a fight was always a fight and students always rushed to watch it, no matter how short lived it was.

Not being detoured by his first miss, Hide quickly launched another set of attacks. Aang ducked, sidestepped, and weaved around the angry teen, all the while keeping his hands behind his back. Hide was young, full of energy, and was obviously dead set on hurting him. But his attacks were sloppy. He wasted too much energy on blows that couldn't, or wouldn't, hit him.

Aang stopped cold and put his back to Hide. Although it was a joke on Aang's end, it was very effective. Hide couldn't strike at someone he couldn't see. And upon realizing that Hide wasn't that smart either, he grinned and bumped him, making Hide stumbled forward.

The angered teen threw a dozen more punches, all clean misses until Aang, annoyed or not, sidestepped and tripped him up. Hide lost his balance, spun in the air as his forward momentum continued, and hit the ground. He skidded a few meters and remained still, sniffling as though he were actually hurt as the Headmaster walked up on them. Hide put on his victim face and quickly won all votes on who was the victim.

"Picking fights on your second day?" Aang shook his head. "We need to have a conference in my office. Bring your parents after school."

"My parents?"

"Kuzon," a scolding voice shouted. The Headmaster paused and turned to the voice. That sure sounded like a parent if he had ever heard one. Lyra stood behind Aang, her one eye shimmering with authority. "There you are. I was worried these colony folks had done something to you when I heard the cheering going on. I trust you won your fight?"

He blinked and then nodded.

"Nice to know that this _trash _school has some uses for you then," she scolded while turning his nose up at the place.

"Excuse me?" the Headmaster snapped. "This school…"

"Is far below my standards for a nobles' child to attend."

"A noble?" He gave her a good look over. "I've never heard about you."

"Have I given you my name yet?" Her voice was cold and crisp. She saw him shiver momentarily as he nodded. "My name is Kipcha Anming, daughter of the Huttser Anming and Larka Anming, and wife to Hon Anming. I don't out much, but I know my name has spread since my injury some time ago." Her fake arm wiggled and he noticed the bandaged arm inside the sling.

"Do you have…"

"Proof," a cold voice finished. A guard wearing half a suit of armor on one side of his body and long robs under it stepped up next to her, one hand gripping the oversized sword he had on his shoulder. "You shouldn't need it." He turned his attention to Lyra. "Apologies, Master Kipcha. Had I known you were coming out of your home, I would have given you a dozen guards to protect you. I am sorry."

"You were protecting my son. That is all I have every asked of you, Lee. Now explain to me what happened."

"Yes, Lady Anming." He was kneeling. Aang noticed how easy it was for him to play this role. "I was watching him from the shadows and watched as Hide attacking Kuzon for speaking On Ji. He attacked with Firebending."

"That's a lie!"

"Kuzon tried to defuse the situation by not fighting, but ultimately was forced to defend himself from Hide. Hide attacked without mercy. But Kuzon, like you, proved too much for him. He didn't have to lay a finger on him to win the fight."

"He did hit me! This guy is a liar!" Hide pointed at Naruto and the Elite Assassin reached out, snagging firm hold of Hide's wrist before he could pull it back. "Help me!"

A blade was pressed against his throat and all went quiet.

"_Enough, Lee!" _Zentrai's mental voice range into everyone's mind, but Aang noticed that it was different. It carried sound now, or the illusion of sound. He had to shake his head as the mute stepped forward, two men flanking him in full armor. No doubt they were Shadow Clones created by Naruto to make things seem more real.

"_There is no point in shedding pointless blood. He is beneath us and you would do well to not stain your hands, or your _weapons_, with inferior blood. So let him be." _

"Yes, Sir." Naruto spoke with a calm voice as he looked over at Hide. "Word of advice; don't use all of your strength in a single swing. There's the off chance that your blow won't connect and you'll be screwed in the end. Just thought I'd let you know that." Naruto patted him on the shoulder, smiling as he did.

The teen stared at him for a moment and then looked away.

"We're leaving, son." Lyra's voice was calm and reassuring as she spoke to him. Aang nodded without a word and followed after them as they turned to leave. Naruto paused for a split second before Lyra said, "Come along, Lee."

"Yes, ma'am." He ran after them, never once looking back.

(-)

The log splintered and then crackled as the fire burned away at the edges of the log. Old pieces of bark were burned to cinder and fell to the bottom of the pit, filling the room with the smell of cinder.

Azula ignored the smell and kept her eyes closed. She needed to focus in order to understanding what was happening to her. She knew something was wrong with herself. It was pretty clear that something was wrong with her since where Naruto had stabbed her had yet to truly heal in the proper way it was needed.

Her eyes opened and ran over her naked form in the mirror. She knew she had the body that everyone wanted. She was strong, beautiful, deadly… Just like a finally honed weapon. She knew that if she could act in the desired way that all males wanted a woman to act she'd have more men, or any man, flacking to her to be with her. But that was her greatest flaw. She couldn't act like a proper woman.

But the wound marked her again. She had another wound to match the markings that Zentrai and Naruto had given her. And now she had this… a black mark that moved down from where she had been stabbed like a spiders' web. It was disgusting just to look at it. It ran down through her veins in a disgusting manner that gave it the appearance it had.

"Why won't it leave me," she asked out loud. Her reflection offered no answers, instead offering the snotty expression she had at the moment.

She snorted at it and resisted the urge to break it as she stood up.

Her body, namely her wound, could not be healed as best they could tell. It was almost as if it wasn't a poison, but more like a think ink that had painted her veins. They had no idea if it was poisonous or not since it had "painted" her insides, but right now there was no need to worry. Though they had told her that it wasn't dangerous, she was still a bit worried that it was dangerous for her.

There was a knock at her door and she quickly pulled her robe on to cover herself.

"Come in," she deadpanned. Her father would send a messenger if he wanted to see her, so that ruled him out as a potential surprise guest. She knew Mai was with Zuko on the mountain overlooking the ocean. And she knew it wasn't Zuko since he was also with Mai, and he would have just barged in regardless. So that only left Ty Lee.

The door was pushed open and the healers stepped in. She turned her nose up at them. She wasn't even aware that it was time to meet up with them.

"Princess," the lead healer greeted. "It's time for you to come with us for your healing treatment." Her eyes flickered with hatred for a brief moment and then she nodded. "We can do it here, if you'd like."

"That would be better." She pulled her robe off and crashed onto the bed. "How long will this take?"

"A few hours at most, Princess."

She sighed inwardly and then nodded. She could waste a few hours right now. It would help her clear her mind.

(-)

"Do we really have to leave?"

Lyra glanced up with a snort as she finished throwing her gear into her new bag. She flung it over one shoulder and then gave a reply.

"Yes, we have to leave now." She turned and slung her bag on Appa's saddle. "We have to get out of the city before the Fire Nation citizens, or soldiers, realize that Rai and Shibaru have been eating their livestock. And for the record, your stunt with joining the Fire Nation School was a complete waste of time. If you pull something like that again, I'll kick your ass."

He gulped and helped in finishing loading their gear.

Sokka walked in with his gear and loaded it up, along with Toph's, and smiled cheerfully. He was the only one outside of the Assassins that was happy to be on the move.

Rai roared and growled angrily as he approached with a large hunk of met dangling from his maw. He shook his head back and forth in an attempt to rip it asunder until Shibaru pranced up to him and grabbed the other end of the dangling meat. With a violent tug it was torn apart with Rai getting the bigger piece because of his powerful jaws.

"What was that?" Sokka asked curiously.

Naruto looked over his shoulder as he tossed the last bag onto the saddle of Appa. "I'd say it was once a Hippo-Cow, but I'm not going to hold my breath." He clapped his hands together as if he were dusting them off and then said, "I'll scout ahead. I have an idea on where we'll end up before nightfall. If I'm wrong, I'll wait for you guys. Zentrai is in charge of your safety until we meet up again. So listen to him."

Aang gave a curt nod as the blond turned. He hefted his sword onto his shoulder and walked into the darkness.

Zentrai and Toph appeared and stared at the young Avatar as he stared into the darkness. Naruto was gone and trusted them all to do the right thing at the moment. They had to start moving and they had to do the right thing.

"_It's time to go." _They mounted Appa and departed.

(-)

Naruto watched them leave from his perch on the mountain. Rai was at his side, his eyes blinking as he watched his mate and friends depart.

"Don't worry, Rai." Naruto told him. "We'll catch up in a day or two. We have to take care of something before we leave though." Rai snorted but complied.

Naruto turned his attention to the school. He was concerned about their safety. Aang's stunt might have cost them more than what the young Avatar might know. His outburst during class about how the Air Nomads didn't have a form of army had been a really big sign to anyone that might have known or even remembered that time. Sure there was probably no in the military right now that could be old enough to remember that time, but Naruto wouldn't put it past them to at least have a few that remembered that day and age.

He was concerned for the teacher mostly. Mrs. Kwan, the teacher that had heard his outburst, had showed nothing but confusion when Aang had told her the truth. Only an idiot wouldn't have known that the Air Nomads didn't have an army, but then again, the current generation from all Nations probably thought that they did have an army. And since the teacher had given a confused look to Aang, and told him that their notional history book was accurate unless he had been there a hundred years ago.

That was the main reason Naruto made the call to pull him. They couldn't chance another night. He wanted to leave as soon as they hit the castle for fear of being compromised. If their disguises had been seen through then there was a chance that the enemy would know they were coming and that Aang was actually alive. And Naruto really didn't want to make an entire village vanish under the pale moonlight either.

There would be too many problems with assassination too. People were smart. Humans were stupid. As odd a saying as it was, it was completely true. If you put a few people together they often act stupid and come up with insane ideas and could possibly never piece a simple murder together. But if you had one or two people work on it, people that got along well, they could solve it quickly. And Naruto knew that if he assassinated Kwan then the villagers might put things together. Their sudden arrival and departure not a day or two before a teacher was killed would throw a lot of red flags and they'd figure it out.

But if he made an entire village vanish it would be just as strange. A village vanishing that was right on the edge of the Fire Nation, on its islands no less, would throw a lot of red flags as well. And Naruto had no intention of sticking around to make sure that no one knew the truth either. He could change disguises, but his hair was still short and still black. He didn't even want to risk using henge either. Too many people and they often bumped into each other. If he managed to nimbly dodge everyone it would look odd and if he touched someone the illusion would be broken.

His answer to all of this was very simple.

A puff of smoke and single clone appeared. It nodded wordlessly and turned towards the school.

"If Kwan makes any suspicious movements or tries to message anyone, you are to kill her. If she hasn't done anything out of the ordinary in a week, disperse. Understand?"

It nodded wordless and slipped into the shadows to stalk its prey for a week.

Naruto looked at Rai and nodded. "Now we're moving out. We'll hit the ranch one last time before we leave." Rai licked his lips. "Just try not to get caught this time around. It's bad enough we had to kill the guy that saw you for fear of it getting back to Azula about a white animal with a single horn killing its Hippo-Cows."

Rai whined and slinked off.

(-)

"I brought you some Komodo-Chicken." Zuko pushed the plate of food through the bars and bit his lower lip.

He was out of options. He needed help from someone he trusted, or at the very least, someone he knew he could trust. His goal with the food was to tempt Iroh to talk to him, but he had his doubts that this would work.

"I know you don't like it, but it beats prison food." He wondered if he even knew what real prison food tasted like. He hadn't seen what they were feeding Iroh, but he had his thoughts on the matter. They were probably feeding him the same stuff that the ship captain had feed them during their voyage to Ba Sing Se. "I admit, I have everything I ever wanted, but it's not how I thought it would be."

Iroh, though unseen, closed his eyes. He still had his back to his nephew.

Zuko kept his gaze focused on his uncle. "The truth is; I need your advice." He grabbed the bars. "I think the Avatar is still alive. I know he's out there. I'm losing my mind. Please, Uncle, I'm so confused. I need your help." Iroh chewed on his lower lip, but chose not to reply. "Forget it! I'll solve this myself! Waste away for all I care." He marched towards the door and stopped before shutting it, offering one last look at his uncle. He slammed it shut.

Iroh cried silently for a few minutes before turning towards the food. He didn't like Komodo-Chicken, but it _was _better than prison food. He ate it in silence and thought about what his nephew might do. There were a lot of things he could do, all of them very bad. He wasn't the type to go around thinking things through. So Iroh knew he'd do something rash. The problem was how far would he go?

He looked down at the clean plate and then back at the cell door. He couldn't help him directly. Not in his current state anyway. He could offer him some wisdom, but it would be hard for him to get to it. He looked at the wall where he was being kept. There was still hope. He knew that the Avatar was still alive and that destiny, while cruel, was on their side.

_Just a little bit longer. _He put the plate beneath his cot and sat down on the cold floor to find a good place to nap.

A/N

Sorry this chapter took so long. We're also sorry that we didn't use Wang Fire and the Sapphire Fire but it wouldn't work in the way we have the story. Sorry. It might appear later on.


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 20

Naruto didn't read porn. He had tried, under Jiraiya's orders as training, to write one while they trained together. It was more or less a test on how far he could think things through. Being an author meant you had to think things through to the very end. It was a task that Naruto didn't have during that time. He wouldn't' admit he was any better at it now either. But the lesson had struck a note with him. He couldn't think that far ahead for even a book he was writing out. There was a lot more to it than just writing and having fun. You had to put work into it. He failed that test but Jiraiya had been pleased with him during that time.

But Naruto didn't read porn. His books, the ones that Jiraiya had given him, more for his own laughable reasons, had come with him to this place. They were sealed inside a scroll and had come along for the preverbal ride. And since he didn't read them or even try to have sex as often as Zentrai did, the mute got them. Naruto had told him that if he lost them or damaged them, he'd kill him.

Zentrai flipped the page on the book as Appa chugged along through the green and brown slim that was the river.

"What are you reading?" Katara asked carefully. She couldn't make out anything on the cover. It was beyond here.

"_It's a book that Naruto had that he never reads. You remember that book he was always reading before he lost it at the fall of Ba Sing Se?" _Katara nodded. _"Well, the author of that book also wrote adult literature as well. That book was the only one that Naruto enjoys reading. But as for me," _he turned the page, _"I prefer his adult literature."_

Katara blinked and then Toph said, "He's reading something about sex."

The Waterbender blinked stupidly and then glared at him. Zentrai turned the page and offered nothing in return for her growl or hard stare.

"Momo!" Aang shouted. There was a splash and Momo flew through the air searching for his friend. This continued for a few more minutes before the Flying Lemur caught him. Aang jumped out of the water and said, "Guys, I think this water is polluted."

Lyra looked over at him as he took a deep breath. "You Airbend that stuff off here, and I'll break your legs." Aang deflated quickly and hastily jumped away to clean himself off. He returned a moment later with a goofy smile. "And the water is polluted. There's a smelting factory in this area that has caused the way of life over here to become near inhabitable. Hard to believe that they're doing this to their own land as well. Kind of sad, really."

"Well that would explain why I can't catch a fish." Sokka pulled his rod up and smiled as he displayed the missing bait. "Normally my fishing skills are _off the hook_. Get it?"

"Too bad they're not _on the hook._" Toph laughed out. The others erupted into laughter.

"It looks like we'll need to go somewhere else to get food." Sokka unrolled a scroll with a rainbow of colors on it. "Assuming that'll fit into Sokka's master schedule." Katara announced with clear annoyance.

Sokka consulted schedule with curious eyes. He had made it because he wanted to keep everyone on track, namely Katara and Aang. They didn't need to go risking their necks to help everyone like Katara would want to do. And Aang would back her up because that was just how he was. He was in love with Katara and love made you do stupid things.

"It's doable. But that means only two potty breaks today!"

The young Avatar looked over to where they were heading and spied a small village floating on the green and brown water. From where they were it looked like a small dock with homes built on top of it. He wondered if it was anchored to the ground below or if it just floated around wherever the current took it.

"Maybe we can get food there."

Zentrai and Lyra shared a glance before they shrugged. It was better than nothing and they were hungry. And more to the point, Shibaru was very hungry and already looking at Appa like he was a six course meal.

(-)

Fire spewed forth and spiraled into the air before crashing down onto the landscape and burning a dozen men to death, armor and all. When the flames died down only molten metal remained in the outline of human figures. They died screaming in pain until they were released into deaths' waiting arms. Survivors huddled together and raised spears and swords in a desperate last stand to defend themselves from the Firebending Assassin that was attacking them.

Inferno stepped through the roaring flames, his wrist mounted sword dripping blood that hissed as it touched the ground. His boots burned the soil and smoke curled around him in a fowl smelling stink that had the Fire Nation soldiers holding their noses in disgust. He made it to them in three powerful strides and cut them down without even the slightest hesitation. They dropped to the ground dead without a sound. He crushed one under his heavy boot and continued on his way.

A fireball flew through the air and splashed into his shield. The Rank Nine Assassin turned to the attackers and opened his mouth as a dozen more Firebenders appeared to halt his attack. They lashed out with twin fireballs. Inferno fired a torrent of flames from his mouth that engulfed and devoured their attacks and continued on. It flew straight and true and splashed over them, engulfing scores more of Fire Nation soldiers. They dropped and tried to extinguish the flames by rolling on the ground. Some nearly got them out before they were crushed under his heavy boot while others died by flying knives.

Inferno looked over his shoulder and spied Blink clinging tightly to a lone Fire Nation soldier. She wrenched his neck up and to the side with a pop before jumping off. He hit the ground dead.

"Factory is this way." Blink announced.

Their mission was to hit a munitions factory where the Fire Nation made their explosive powder. This wouldn't cripple them, but it would triple the length of their supply line. The Fire Nation would have to go all the way back home to get what they needed if they took it out. Hitting it was a must. The fate of nearly eight hundred citizens lay in their hands. Getting rid of the factory would mean they could live for just a few more days. It was all they could do to save them. Some didn't want to leave. Others were too sick or old to be moved. And the young refused to leave the old to die at the hands of the Fire Nation. So they had no choice but to take it out and give them a few days to live. After this was taken care of they'd leave.

They had already sent in two teams to take it out, both got destroyed. The first team was killed because they got unlucky and hit during a resupply run. The Fire Nation had two battalions at the time stocking up for a long trip and thus found and destroyed the first team. After the first team failed the second team was sent in. They managed to blow up a portion of the factory before they were caught, cornered, and killed. So after two teams failed to take it out they were sent in. Blink, Inferno, Ghost, Reaper, and Hawkeye. They were to destroy the factory and everyone inside. No survivors.

Reaper peered over the edge and smiled. She motioned to Hawkeye and the quiet female vanished from sight. Blink moved up the hill and looked over the edge. Ghost was at her side and giggling like mad. He creeped her out.

Four dozen Fire Nation soldiers stood on guard with tank support and battlements at the ready. They knew they were coming. Getting in through the front would be a waste of time. They had enough firepower to take down the Top Ten Assassins. As overkill as they were, they knew they were not invincible.

Ghost pointed to something in the distance and Reaper snorted. "Go get yourself killed."

He laughed at her. "I was thinking we'd send Metal Man to do it while you and I take on the army up front. We'll see who can get the most kills. It'll be a contest."

"Too dangerous." Blink made a sideways cut with her hand. They noticed the other option and Reaper turned up her nose, as did Ghost. "Fine. You two can take the direct approach. Get yourselves killed. We aim to live through this." Inferno nodded mutely and began his long hike down to the sewer line with his small friend.

Reaper and Ghost exchanged glances before chasing after them. Surviving to fight another day sounded better. That meant they could kill more people.

They reached the sewer and quickly began trucking their way through the muck. They sloshed through waist deep filth that made them hold their nose and breathe from time to time. It smelt horrible.

They sloshed through it for two minutes before Hawkeye stopped and motioned for the others do the same. "Nasty stuff."

"What is?" Blink questioned.

"They planted bombs through here." Hawkeye motioned to a single string that was set up to two black objected mounted on the walls. Inferno glanced at them and snorted. It would be easy to remove them. "Ghost, take care of this for us."

"What am I, your tool?" He shoved her out of the way and clipped the wire with one of his knives. He felt around in the water and then, once he was satisfied that nothing was there, began walking. "That was too easy." He threw it back in her face.

They sloshed through more filth until they reached the drain where all the waste was kept. Inferno reached up and pulled the metal grate apart with two tugs. Once it was safely in the sewer, Blink jumped up and scouted the place. She gave a whistle for the all clear. Reaper and Ghost went up next with Hawkeye using Inferno for support. Inferno grappled onto the side and hauled himself up. Not an easy feat for someone incased in a suit of armor with a large shield and sword attached.

The inside of the factory was divided into multiple layers, each with a different process in making the stuff. The one they needed to hit was in the far back. There was no doubt in their mind that they would have the entire place fully secure with Fire Nation Soldiers. But what good was a simple mission without a few hundred guards? It would be a waste if they came all this way and the only defense they had was at the front gate.

Blink returned and cracked her neck. "I counted two teams of guards walking down both corridors. They don't know that we're here yet."

Inferno didn't care and started walking towards the guards. Their orders were clear. They were to kill everyone inside the facility and level the place. They had to follow orders to the letter or die trying. There was no two ways about it.

Blink knew what her companion was doing and took to the ceiling. She clinging to the rafters and began crawling along them as she followed her companion. Reaper and Ghost followed, but put some distance between the hulking behemoth so not to get caught in any of his attacks. Hawkeye pulled out an arrow and racked it. She wanted to be ready for the fight when it happened.

(-)

Naruto rested easily against the wooden chair and basked in its soft cushion. He was happy to be on his own at the moment. Well he was almost alone. He had Rai with him. But that really didn't mean he had a companion though. Rai was a pet, but was also like a son that Naruto figured he'd never get to have. There were just too many dangerous involved in getting romantic with him. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew that he'd end up having children through a brothel, but would never see the children.

"Here's your tea, sir." Naruto nodded politely and took the cup. It was still warm. He never favored warm tea when he was back home, but here, well, they didn't have ice makers like he did back then.

He took a sip of the tea and then smiled. It was a lot better than what he had first thought it would be. But nothing beat Iroh's tea.

"You look pretty good for someone that's running around the way you do." Naruto eyed the man in front of him.

He wore a red scarf that was wrapped around his neck and ended in two tuffs from his neck that stopped short of his knees. He wore a white shirt that was cut open to show the fishnet shirt he wore underneath it along with his stomach and chest, the sleeves ending at his elbows. The shirt was connected to a black cloth that ran around his waist, leaving the front part open to show his black pants. This, too, ended just at the knees. To complete the picture he wore a red cloth over both fingerless gloves that connected up into his sleeves, giving the appearance that he wore a long sleeved shirt of some kind. With Fire Nation styled boots, it completed the picture of an Elite Fire Nation Soldier.

"I could say the same for you, Shadow Blade." The man smirked and gripped his two swords tightly. "I heard you were coming back home. Didn't believe it though."

"Orders from father."

"I see."

"As if." Shadow Blade grabbed his own cup of tea and took a quick sip. "Never really liked the tea here. Fat makes it better back home."

"I'll have to try some if we can find time to head out there for a little bit." Shadow Blade rolled his eyes. "So why did you drag me all the way out here? You know I'm supposed to be guarding the Royal Family right now? Not tending to your insane things you need done."

Shadow Blade cocked a rare smile. His smiles were often forced unless in the presence of his father or someone he loved. But this smile was rare because it was one of joy and intimidation.

"Is that so? Well, then I suppose you don't want to take care of a little mess that's appeared in this area?" Naruto cocked a brow. He got a strange look from a woman in the far corner. She was smiling at him. He wondered if his face paint to cover his whisker marks had vanished already. "You see, there's a smelting factory not too far from where your family is heading. I thought you might wanna take a look into it. See what you think of the situation."

"Why do I get the feeling that this place is hardly worth my time?"

"It could be. But then again," he took out a spoon and stirred the drink, "it could be worth _our _time." He put a few cubes of sugar in his drink and took a sip. "The Fire Nation uses it for making metal and sending it off in its raw form so other places can turn it into what they need it for. Since it's on the water, it makes it easier for the ships to get to it and ship it out. Hitting it would cripple them for a short while. It is the only one on the waters' edge, making it a perfect place for them to easily transport stuff. That, and the fact that they're gunking up the river as well."

"And you want me to deal with this?"

"Correction: I want you three to deal with this."

"You don't have the power to order me around."

"True. But consider it a favor for later on. You'll be passing through Shu Jing in a short while, correct?" Naruto gritted his teeth. "I'll put in a favorable word to father if you can take this thing down. He'll let you stay the night and rest accordingly. I'm sure sleeping on the ground is a bit bad for you. And not to mention uncomfortable."

Naruto growled inwardly and nodded after two seconds of thought.

"I'm sure you'll do a good job, Lee. After all, you're not the Leader of the Guards for your Royal Family for nothing." He tapped him on the shoulder as he stood and belted both of his swords. He leaned down close to him and added, "But to be on the safe side of things; make sure there are no witnesses. We can't afford to have the Ace of Aces exposed at a time like this." He smiled warmly and parted after paying for their tea.

Naruto stood up two minutes later and parted as well. They had never been here. No one would ever know that two Elite Assassins had met here and discussed anything concerning the Fire Nation smelting factory.

(-)

"_If I just pretended that I died with my parents, then I have nothing to fear. I don't have to fear death. I don't have to fear pain. I don't have to fear even fear… because I'll already be dead with my parents." _

Inferno blinked as he rose to his feet and served the chaos that had just consumed them all.

Molten metal fell from containers while walls turned cherry red before turning into liquid. Fire spewed up in cones that consumed dozens of pieces of machinery needed to keep the factory going. It was slowly coming apart, but it wasn't enough.

He surged onward, shaking his head groggily to clear the memory he had set for himself. He felt what had to be an explosion at his back as he was hurled forward. He crashed into the bulkhead. It hissed with a groan as steam vented out. He hissed at it and stabbed it with his sword to shut it up and then stared at the five Fire Nation Soldiers that had dared to attack him.

Throwing knives and arrows flew through the air and hit their jugulars. They dropped gurgling as they reached up to remove the objects. They died before they hit the ground.

Inferno glanced up as the others appeared. Blink looked worried but smiled soon after checking him over.

"That was new." Hawkeye whispered.

Blink nodded while looking to the vault doors. Behind those doors was the spot where they kept all the black powder and whatever other explosives the Fire Nation cooked up. It was sealed tight, not only to keep them from getting to it, but also for safety. They had lost two factories in the past because of ill management when they first starting using the stuff. It was highly volatile. One spark, even from a static discharge, was enough to set some of it off. And if some it went off, it all went off. After two factories had gone up in smoke because of this, they finally decided to store them in separate areas where they could easily get to them and make sure they were well protected from any discharge or heat of any kind. They weren't taking any chances with it.

Hawkeye and Blink moved to the rafters that were overhead and took up positions in guarding the others. Ghost moved with Reaper to the vault doors and knocked on it. He smiled as Inferno got up beside him.

"Are you sure you can cut through the hinges on this bad boy?" Ghost asked.

Inferno raised one hand and ignited a tiny flame from his middle and pointer finger. Ghost whistled as the suit wearing Assassin began cutting through the hinges.

Reaper shifted from foot to foot as she watched him slowly cut through the thick metal. She wasn't worried about what was on the other side. She was just worried she wouldn't get to kill any more people. But she was just a bit curious on Inferno's Firebending. No matter how you sliced it, they were walking a razors edge at the moment. "A little slice of Armageddon," had been Ghost's words on the matter. She had to agree with him mentally. If Inferno screwed up, even just a little, they could be blown to smithereens with all the explosive powder on the other side of the door.

"Contact," Hawkeye whispered.

Reaper glanced up and in the direction an arrow flew. Five Fire Nation men were heading their way. They didn't look like soldiers, more like workers. They were sending them in to investigate. Not to fight.

"Kill them." Ghost screamed. He flung acid coated needles and laughed as they hit two men through the eyes and into their brains. Blink and Hawkeye finished the others. "I'm a man, so I get all the credit for that." Reaper snorted as turned like Ghost did when the vault door dropped with a crash. Ghost whistled at the sight of all the explosive powder. All of it was placed inside metal and wooden kegs for transport. He was pretty happy to see the metal ones rather than the wooden ones. "I've got the charge."

He stepped in with Reaper and pulled out a small device. It was their timer for this. It was made out of the three parts. The first was a covering that was meant to hold it all together while the second part was a piece of metal with a weight on the end of it. These two parts worked together with a striker that doubled as the countdown timer. And inside all of it was a small amount of explosive powder that had enough bang in it to blow the device apart when the striker did its thing. It was small, portable, and better than using a fuse.

Ghost set it inside the metal container and positioned it just above the powder small magnet. He clamped it to the top of the keg and set the timer up. He watched the bobbing weight swing three times, indicating that three seconds had gone by, and then turned and ran. He was crazy. Not suicidal.

The others began running as well. They had no intentions of being here when the blast went off.

They ran past pipes and mangled bodies, never once stopping. They turned a corner, slide down a flight of angled stairs and onto a catwalk that protruded over a ledge. Five hundred meters below, an ocean churned against rocky cliffs. They had made it through the factory, out the back side, where massive tubes pumped out the sludge that was leftover from all their produce they made here.

Inferno glanced back into the heart of the factory and then looked down at the ocean.

Blink offered her hand.

He took it and they jumped. Ghost, Hawkeye, and Reaper soon followed.

They pumped their legs and then straightened them just before hitting. The water smacked into them hard, but they were okay for the time. Inferno struggled to stay afloat, but soon managed to stay above the water.

"Look," Hawkeye said.

They glanced up and watched as the factory brightened. A blinding flash of light and thunder tore through the factory, throwing chunks of molten metal and burning bodies into the air. A loud metal screech sounded as pieces of metal fell in on each other. A mushroom cloud appeared in the sky over the demolished factory as debris rained down around them.

"Dive!" Blink screamed. She took a deep breath and sank into the water. Inferno did the same. His waterlogged armor might now just save his life.

Overhead, water flash vaporized. Droplets of liquid rock and metal hissed past him. Heat smothered him… and a giant hand grasped and squeezed until all Inferno saw was blackness.

(-)

Naruto walked out into the open and smiled as he found Katara and Aang finishing setting up camp.

"How was your trip up here?"

Katara dropped her sleeping bag from shock while Aang went into a fighting stance. The blond stared at them for a good two seconds with a straight face before laughing. They hadn't expected him and they still weren't used to his new look.

"You're back," Toph greeted him. She smiled and punched him arm lightly. Naruto rubbed his arm mockingly and then noticed Zentrai and Lyra staring at him funny. "So what took you so long to get back to us? We're you seeing a girl?" She laughed at her own joke.

Naruto scratched the side of his head as he thought about the strange girl at the tea shop. "No. But I did meet a friend."

Sokka sat up straight upon hearing this. "You met with a friend?! How could you do something so stupid?! I thought you told us to stay under the radar! And you go visit a friend? Some protector you are!" He sat back down and began grumbling about idiot Assassins as he went over his schedule.

Naruto rolled his eyes and looked to Aang. "It doesn't matter. I'm a little surprised you all haven't moved on from this area though. I only backtracked because I got tired of waiting in Shu Jing for you guys."

Katara's eyes narrowed into slits. "But how'd you know we were here in this area?"

Naruto blinked. He hadn't thought that they'd give him that much of a second thought for how he knew they were here. He glanced at Zentrai for a brief moment and then said, "I had a personally feeling that you would hold them up here." She blinked and looked back at the village that was beneath them. Naruto eyed it too and looked back at her curiously. "It doesn't matter though. I was right and I'm here now. We can move on tomorrow." He placed his sword next to a large rock. "We should all get some rest. We're leaving tomorrow."

"Fair enough," Sokka announced. "But we have to leave thirty minutes early if we want to make up for the time we lost."

"Sokka," Lyra snapped. "Time isn't on our side at all. We'll be lucky to get to the rendezvous point before the eclipse even hits. And the only reason I say that is because we're in enemy territory and you all acted like idiots in that village. If you screw up the way you did again, you'll be the cause of our capture."

"You guys can bust us out though." Aang retorted.

"_Wrong." _Zentrai's mental voice scolded. _"We will protect the Avatar only. Our orders are absolute. Aang's safety is our highest priority. You're all expendable but him." _

Toph deflated with Sokka in knowing they were nothing when compared to Aang, but they accepted it. Aang was the Avatar and the last Air Nomad. If he died, the cycle would possibly be broken because when it reached the Air Nomads again, there would be no Air Nomads and thus the cycle would be broken.

"Let's just get some rest." Aang offered. He felt disgusted by their logic and didn't both arguing with them.

(-)

Reaper coughed as she struggled to rise to her feet. They had nearly drowned after the blast, but managed to stay conscious, and finally, exhausted, swam back to the shore and dragged themselves around the edge of the factory and into the hills.

The entire time had made it out alive.

No Fire Nation reinforcements came. They had all been killed when the factory blew. Their operation was a success… but it had already cost them too much. The lives of the first two teams were the price for the destruction of the factory.

All that remained of the factory, the Fire Nation troops, was a partially glassed crater a kilometer in diameter. No bones were found, not even a hint of armor. Gone. Whispers in the wind.

Inferno rose off the hunk of earth he was sitting on and began his climb back up the hill to where the factory was located.

"Where are you going?" Blink watched him for a moment.

"**Survivors. Going to kill them." **

"There are none, Inferno. They're all dead. We completed the mission." He paused and continued on his way. She reached out, taking his large hand into her small one. "It's over, Inferno. We won. Now we have to head back and give our report to Rehka. She'll send us out again. I promise."

Inferno looked back up at the smoking crater with glazed eyes. He flexed his free hand and then nodded. He turned and they began their journey back home.

The village had been saved, but not forever. Two days later the Fire Nation returned with a vengeance and slaughtered the entire town. The Assassins could do nothing for them. They had given them time to get away, but they stayed and fought and died. What had come to face them would have been impossible for them to deal with. Eight battalions with siege tanks and artillery came and destroyed the village.

(-)

When morning came, Aang was greeted to Appa lying on his side, moaning in pain with Katara trying to tend to whatever was wrong with him. The giant beast gave a loud moan of pain as Katara tried to smooth out his fur.

"What's the matter, Katara?" Aang asked.

"I think Appa's sick."

Sokka shot straight up inside the saddle that they would soon be mounting on the giant Sky Bison. "What?! Appa sick?! That's awful!"

He rushed over the large beast as Toph and the Assassins stepped up beside the beast. "Wow, Sokka. I didn't know you cared so much." Toph told him. She seemed genuine about it, though she was still rubbing dirt out of her eyes from her sleep.

"Of course I care." Zentrai rolled his eyes as Sokka tore into his clothing and pulled out his schedule. "I might as well just throw our schedule away now!" He blinked when he felt all eyes land on him. They were glaring at him. "And… I'm concerned because my big furry friend doesn't feel well."

"He must have gotten sick from being in the polluted water."

"He doesn't look sick." Aang glanced at his friend and then added, "You okay, buddy?" Appa stuck his tongue out. It was half purple. "His tongue his purple! That can't be good. Katara, can you heal him?"

"It looks like he needs some medicine. Maybe we can find some herbs in town."

"While you guys do that, we'll scout around here and try to find something better to eat other than their crap." Lyra shivered as she remembered their fish that they had. It wasn't good, but it was somewhat okay. She still didn't like it.

"Okay… But don't do anything insane." Sokka told them with a shout. Naruto shrugged and started walking with the two Assassins trailing behind him. Sokka turned back to the others as they stared at him. "What?" Katara shook her head and lead the way to the dock.

(-)

Naruto closed his eyes and opened them a moment later as he watched the teens depart and head towards the floating village.

"I don't like lying to them." Lyra told him. Naruto nodded as well, but he had no other choice in the matter. "So what did our friend want us to do? You said you ran into someone, but you never said who it was."

"_It was Blindside." _Lyra stared at him. _"How does he expect us to truly guard these kids and take care of a factory on our own? They might be upping their security with all the hits we're doing now. Before we departed, Inferno, Blink, Reaper, Hawkeye, and Ghost were being sent out to take care of a munitions factory. We have no idea on if they have dealt with it yet or not, but if they have, you know they'll be upping their security. Plus, I read Katara's mind. Appa isn't sick. She's feeding him purple berries of some kind."_

"And they say we'll do something stupid." Naruto grumbled. He closed his eyes and made three clones. They quickly changed into copies of the three and returned to the campsite. "We'll scout out this factory first and foremost and then hit it when they're at their weakest. It's that simple. If we see any changes in their security, we're leaving and not bothering with the factory."

"_I don't know. I'd like to see our old friend. I need him to look over Jet's Hook Swords for me. They need to be sharpened and I don't have the gear to do it. He will. And if I take them anywhere else…" _Naruto sighed. As much as he wanted to argue the matter, Zentrai had a point. Anyone else that saw the Hook Swords up close might be able to identify them. _"Not to mention I need to speak with Blindside about a few things. He'll know what all the other Assassins are doing and we can learn just what sort of changes Rehka had in mind. We left before we could learn what her changes were."_

"Fine. But we're scouting it first and then we hit it." Naruto stood up and looked at the factory. He really didn't want to hit the thing.

(-)

"A munitions factory was hit?"

Mai nodded and Ty Lee blinked in surprise.

"There was one survivor when a team was sent in. He got away and has been marked as a coward. He survived by hiding. Even though he reported the attack and was able to get a messenger hawk to us, he was killed for being a coward and not fighting the enemy. It was the Assassins." Ty Lee flexed one hand. "It wasn't Naruto. There were two Assassins we have seen and three we haven't seen. The two that were identified instantly were Reaper and Whisper."

"Isn't Whisper the archer?" Mai nodded. "So it was the same two that attacked us at Ba Sing Se when we tried to use the drill to take down the wall? But why would they suddenly shift tactics and start hitting the factories? Don't they realize that the Fire Nation has dozens of them planted all around the world?"

Mai noted her distain on the subject of what the Fire Nation had, but made no comment on it. "The other three were ones that have been reported throughout the years, but we never saw them. It was the Blaze, the Slasher, and the Demon Child."

Ty Lee sat back down on her bed. She was happy to know that Naruto wasn't among the list, but she was worried now. Surely they would have already had a report on him coming back and causing a ruckus, but he had yet to appear. It was disturbing. And it was worrying her.

Mai turned and started for the door, pausing only to say, "He's still alive, Ty Lee." The acrobat blinked as she looked at her friend. The weapon mistress stopped and smiled at her over her shoulder. "When you get the chance, which I think you will, you can return his book to him." Ty Lee glanced at her pillow and noticed that the book was barely visible from beneath it. "I won't stop you from meeting with him, but you realize that if you do, they either might kill you, Azula might kill you, or our entire Nation would see you as a traitor."

"Is that a warning?"

"No. Just some friendly advice." Mai moved to the door and stepped outside. When the door shut, her eyes grew tired and she laughed inwardly.

"_Azula will be death of you in the end. She is nothing but a power hungry person that would devour the world in flame and then consume the flames themselves for her own reasons." _Zentrai's words rang in her mind. _"She will destroy you if you follow her."_

Mai glanced back at Ty Lee's room and smiled. "But someone _does _have to be there for Ty Lee." She began walking down the corridor to see Zuko. She needed to order someone around.

(-)

Azula read the report on the destruction of one of their factories. It was strange how two were hit at the same time, but she knew that it was possible. It wasn't unheard of as a tactic, but this had to be a chance a hit. There was no way they could be hit at the exact same time as a resupply run was about to happen. There was just no way. What were the chances that two battle groups would be stationed at each factory for a resupply and hit and killed at the same time? It wasn't possible. And from the survivor account, it had been a team of five that hit the munitions factory. The other factory was of no concern to her. The only reason this one was strange was because of the names used to describe the Assassins.

She chewed on her lower lip. Naruto had a bunch of names, just like Zentrai, but these names were new. They weren't common names and from the description given by the survivor, they were not Naruto, Lyra, or Zentrai. Neither had been described during the attack.

She lowered the report and ran a hand through her hair before noticing that her father was in her room with her.

"Is there something you need, father?"

Ozai glanced down at the report she was reading and looked at her with strange eyes. He seemed confused, worried, and happy. There was something else there. She couldn't identify it, but it was there.

"What do you think happened at the second factory?"

"It's a Naval Yard where we build our ships." She thought about that for a moment. "It's on an island in the middle of an ocean, and one of the only ones that have practically in enemy territory. Its destruction, however, was not needed. We hardly use it." Ozai looked a bit confused by that. "The reason we don't use it anymore is because it was taking too long for us to get supplies to it in the last two years. We originally had a smelting factory there before it ran dry. The minerals needed for making the metal for our ships ran dry, and so we simply stopped using it outside of having it as command outpost and for making smaller ships. A little over four months ago it was turned into an official Ship Breaking Yard, but also retained its status as a Naval Yard since we used the damages ships to make smaller ships."

"Can you think of any reason for why it would be hit now?"

"Not at the moment." She looked back at the report. There were no survivors found. And they checked the villages as well that were filled with Fire Nation citizens. They were all untouched. Whatever attacked it only hit that place and not the village. "I'm a bit more concerned about our military strength at the moment. We're thinned in too many areas. And with the invasion, supposing it's still coming, we might be lucky to not lose sufficient supplies in our own Nation. Frankly, I'm worried that the invasion, supposing it still happens, might actually do us in."

"I understand your concerns, Azula. But we can push this back if it happens."

"I know." Her eyes danced back to that report. The attack was precise. It was very precise and it scared her. "This one was also pretty close to home. As much as I'd hate to suggest it; it might be wise to have an extra set of guards at our factories and supply lines inside our Nation."

"You mean our home Nation?"

"Yes." She looked her father in the eye. That look was still there. "If there is an invasion coming, we can use them as markers to know where the enemy might be. If they are coming for us, we can use our troops as warning beacons to alert us to where they are and where they're coming from."

"You want to trade our soldiers for information?" She nodded without hesitation. "Very well. But I have a better idea in mind." He glanced over his shoulder for a moment. A man in dark robes with most of his face covered in bandages stood in the doorway. She didn't recognize him. "Tell your men they have to guard the factories in our home Nation. If they see anything out of the ordinary, they are to report it immediately."

"Sir." He nodded and departed.

Azula watched him leave with a strange glint in her eyes. "Do not trifle with him, Azula. He runs our Black Ops Division." His daughter stared at her father with a stone face. "He will get the job done. Now tell me how you think the enemy will show up."

"On land." She smiled. Ozai smiled as well. There was no other way for the enemy to show up. If they came by sea they'd be killed before they could reach the main capital shore. If they came by land, which they would have to come by sea to do in the first place, they'd still get slaughtered. Azula's fears, while very real, were easily extinguished.

(-)

Rai snapped at Sokka as he approached with his knife. He wanted a piece of the Hippo-Cow that he had captured and he wasn't about to share either. Rai wasn't a picky eater, but he wasn't one that liked to share. And even though he was on his fourth Hippo-Cow, Rai would still eat eight more before he was full. As strange as he looked just knowing on it at his leisure, it was his way of eating things. He liked to make his food suffer while they were alive, so he ate them slowly unless he was famished.

Naruto gave a quick glance to the dead Hippo-Cow as Rai took a crunching bite out of its neck, tearing bones out as he tugged twice on it to fully remove the head from the body.

"You're such a pig at times, Rai." Naruto grumbled. Rai snorted and continued eating his meal at his leisure. "How was your latest trip into town?"

"Eventful," Sokka announced, holding up the tray of what looked like mud packed clams. The blond snorted in disgust and even Rai took a cautious sniff when the food was presented to him. Even Rai wouldn't eat it. That, in itself, was saying something. "But the town is acting weird." Naruto nodded silently as he grabbed a piece of meat out of his pouch. "They were acting all festive because some mysterious River Spirit has been showing up and protecting them. The strange thing is that it only started to appear after we got here."

"You're point?"

Sokka cut his eyes to his sister. She was talking with Toph about something. "I… I think Katara might be doing something."

"And you want me to talk with her about it?" Sokka nodded. "No. She's your sister. If she is doing something that could blow our cover, we'll either kill her or make her understand that she can't go and do whatever she wants." _I sound like a hypocrite. _Naruto decided to leave his thoughts to himself. "Most likely we'll knock her out and leave immediately. But with Appa still sick, we can't go anywhere unless you want to go have the group leave for a few hours and let Rai and Shibaru eat him."

"I'd like to actually avoid that, as we need Appa for transport."

"Then stop worrying about what's going on around you. Be happy with the current situation as it stands and deal with it. Make the most of it for the time being. Rework your precious schedule. Learn a new hobby. Do something with the time you have." Naruto turned and started walking. His eyes danced to the smelting factory in the distance. It was belching black smoke into the air and he felt his insides twist into a knot. _Either I'm doing something insane that could get us caught, or I'm doing something too easy and boring to be worth my time. Either way, that factory is going down now. Whatever happens later on is not my concern. We have our orders. _

There was a loud crunch and Naruto glanced over just in time to see Rai finish crushing the skull in his mouth.

(-)

Night fell and covered the land in a dark shadow that consumed everything in its path. The moon was consumed by the clouds and vanished.

Naruto, Lyra, and Zentrai moved through the darkness for the smelting factory in the distance. It was hard to miss, even with the cloud hanging overhead. In fact, it seemed the black smoke it belched out caused most of the clouds.

The clouds parted and the three stopped by a large rock. They had a perfect view of the place. The Fire Nation liked to build large things, building including. This thing was enormous. It had dozens of black smokestacks that ran along the roof of it and also along the side it. The entire thing was a mass of pipes that wrapped around it in awkward fashion. They had gone for an easier way of working and making things simple. In this case, they used all the pipes to suck in the smoke created from the process and have it get outside with little effort. Drain pipes ran from the lower levels and into the water, gunking it up.

The gunk happened to be the aftermath of the smelting process. Smelting was the process of removing metal from ore. Naruto had no doubt that back home where he was truly from they had an easier solution for the leftovers, but he had no idea on what they did. Here, the leftovers were thrown into the water and left unattended to. He knew that even if they were to shut this factory down and then try to remove the stuff, life wouldn't return to normal instantly. It would takes years, tens of years most likely, for things to return to normal. Just because you stopped doing one thing doesn't mean that if fixes everything instantly. And they also wouldn't have time.

Naruto gave a sideways glance to Zentrai and he smiled.

"_What are you smiling about?" _Naruto sent to him.

"_I can count about thirty guards in there right now." _Naruto knew that wasn't the real reason he was smiling. _"Do you remember when you first discovered how much I love spending time at brothels?"_

"_How could I forget?"_

"_Well, you seemed to have finally realized the importance of the mighty brothel." _Naruto stared at him. He didn't bother glancing at Lyra. He knew she was glaring at the two of them. _"You would trade love for pleasure. Interesting."_

"_Don't read too much into it. I'm just starting to think that this war won't end during my time. I'll probably be dead before the war is over."_

The blond took point and began running low along the ground. Lyra followed behind him while Zentrai brought up the rear. They stopped at the first large opening and placed their backs against the warm metal. Naruto gave a sideways glance to Zentrai and the mute gave a nod. The path was clear up ahead.

"Why are you starting to think like that?" Lyra kept her voice in a whisper.

Naruto gave her a flat look as they ran down the corridor and into the main exterior of the facility. They approached three pathways and they shared a knowing glance before parting. Zentrai would keep them linked so they could know each other's location and progress. Time wasn't on their side for this mission.

Naruto walked towards the main cabin where supplies and weapons were kept. He found a few guards talking. He wasn't sure what they were talking about, but it didn't sound nearly as important as what they made it sound.

"Did you hear about the new guard schedule that's coming up? I heard we're getting new soldiers out here. Actual soldiers compared to us guards."

"I heard." The other man shook his head. "Did you hear about the attack that caused all of this? They said there were three places that got hit by strangers and destroyed our factories. The first was a munitions factory. The second was a Ship Breaking Yard that we've got doubled as a Command Outpost and a Naval Yard for building smaller ships. The last one was a factory for building our tanks. They said that was the strangest one of them all."

"Oh? How so?"

"They said the entire thing, along with the entire landmass it rested on, vanished."

"You don't say?" Naruto crept up behind them and killed one while capturing the other. The man blinked and then screamed but the blond covered his mouth with his hand before he could. "Would you like to know how the entire facility vanished?" The man nodded frightfully. "One our little agents took it out. You wouldn't believe on how strong some of our Assassins are." Naruto's hidden blade jetted into the back of his neck just below the base of his skull.

The man died before he hit the ground.

Naruto grabbed the bodies and shoved them into a locker. There would be no point in hiding them once they began to demolish the factory.

"_Two of them are down. How many have you guys dealt with?"_

There was a moment of pause before Zentrai's thoughts drifted into his. _"I've already dealt with three, but they're talking about something weird. They said one of the factories totally vanished. Any ideas?"_

"_If I was betting on who it was, I'd normally say Blindside. But he's here. So that rules him out. I'd have to say that it was probably Geo or Amy. Most likely it was the two of them. Trickster isn't an Earthbender. So if it was anyone that's that powerful, I'd say it was Geo and Amy working together." _

"_As logical as that sounds, Lyra doesn't think it was them. She believes that it was Dino." _

"_That doesn't matter. What matters is taking this place out." _

The Elite Assassin turned and went back to work.

(-)

There was something wrong. Rehka didn't like how things were going. They weren't going smoothly. She had in fact ordered the destruction of more than a dozen factories, but they were to be well timed so that they were hit at complete random times. But according to her reports and the reports that they had gathered from her spies inside the Fire Nation, they had been attacked at roughly the same time. She hadn't ordered that. And what spies she had in the Fire Nation, which was very small, had confirmed it.

But there was also another problem.

She had got a strange report about some awkward activity in the Fire Nation's Research and Development branches. They had been pulled together and kept completely separated from others inside their own Nation. Only now were they being allowed out into the public, but they were all working under a vow of silence. Whatever they were doing or had done, they had a few that had a big mouth and even bigger mouth when they were drunk. From what she had learned it was something so big that they had to have it built near inside the dormant volcano that the main Capital sat in.

She chewed on her lower lip and wondered if sending her spies in to find out what they had built was a good idea.

"Having problems?"

She blinked and glanced up from her reports. Topaz stood in the doorway with an impassive face. There was no hiding how much Topaz knew with an impassive face. She was probably most knowledgeable Assassin among the Top Ten in terms of battle smarts, people smarts, and her medical smarts. She was a Poison Master and more often than not was the most alluring Assassins with her choice of clothing.

"Not exactly." Topaz cocked her head to the side and then looked at the reports on her table. "You wouldn't by any chance be up for a mission with your new team, would you?"

Topaz shifted awkwardly. It was a clear sign that she was nervous, but she had never been to well at hiding her emotions from others too well.

"I don't want to take them out."

"Regardless of what you want, you must take them out on a few missions in order to get them fully trained. I know they are very power, but even they need aid from time to time." Topaz stared at her in curiosity for a moment before looking back into the hallway. Her team was outside. "I do have an assignment for your team regardless of what you want."

"I understand, milady." She bowed once and snapped her fingers. "Marut. Brave. Enter. We have a mission."

"That's more like it." The Assassin Leader grabbed a file from within her drawer and slid it across her. Topaz retrieved it without looking at her. "I want you to have a look at a barracks that is being used by the Fire Nation so we know what's going on. Something's not right. They have stopped sending troops to Ba Sing Se and it troubles me."

"But they are making it look like they are sending them in regardless?"

Rehka nodded slowly as the two mentioned Assassins entered. It was hard to not know the two, but she didn't care at the moment. They needed to learn how to not kill the enemy. They were good at killing, but when it came to gathering information they came up short.

"Your mission is to find and observe a barracks that is being occupied by Fire Nation troops. They have been stationed there for two weeks and haven't moved. Normally we'd just send you end to kill them, but not this time. I have reason to believe that they aren't moving because they have standing orders to return when they get the chance."

"And you have what proof for this?"

"I have no proof. That's why I'm sending your team in. Now get the job done." They left and she stared down at the other report. She chewed on her lower lip as she tried to figure it out but soon realized that she needed more information before it would make sense.

(-)

"We have intruders! Kill them!"

Naruto and Zentrai were on the man before he could get far while two others made a mad dash for the nearest exit. It clamped shut with Earthbending and the two men looked back as their commanding officer was captured. They gave a quick glance before attacking. Lyra calmly stepped up behind them and stabbed one in the back of his neck with her hidden wrist blade while the other was killed by two throwing knives that got buried between his eyes. They were both dead before they hit the ground.

The three Assassins grabbed the bodies and hurled them into the vat of molten metal before moving to the captured commanding officer.

"What do you know?" Lyra asked as nicely as she could.

"I know a lot of things."

Naruto stepped on his ankle and crushed it. The man blinked stupidly and then looked up at the teen before screaming. Naruto waited for him to quiet down before he grabbed his face and yanked him closer to the vat of metal. He put him close enough that his face began to burn.

"Talk before you get a facelift. And trust me, this one won't be pleasant."

The man stared at the vat of metal and then looked up at the teen. "You damn Assassins think that we're all weak of heart and fear for our lives, don't you?" Naruto stared at him intently for a moment. "I won't talk. I've resigned myself for death since the day I lost my wife because of this war."

"Fine then." Naruto threw him into the vat of molten metal and started walking. The man didn't have a chance to scream, but he didn't strike Naruto as the type that would scream with death's release. "Can you sense anymore guards, Zentrai?"

"_No. But that man was strange." _He looked at the vat and watched as smoke curled upwards from the burning body as the armor began to melt. _"He wasn't joking. He lost his wife to this war. But she died by Fire Nation hands." _

"That just shows you how bad war is." Lyra glanced into the darkness of the factory. "We had better hurry. If we waste any more time we might have problems."

Zentrai nodded and started cutting down the walls that separated the molten metal from each other to give them shape. He cut down their canisters and tossed them into the work, mixing and ruining the smelting process. What explosives he had and confiscated were used as well, blowing holes in critical spots where either ventilation was needed to further ruin the smelting process or to make it too difficult to work in.

Lyra took care of all pipes and all duct working by Earthbending the ground under them to destroy everything. In the process she set explosives off in areas where silos had turned into pressure vessels. They blew out their louds and sent shrapnel sailing in every which direction. The hiss of their gases screamed an ultrasonic cry that sounded like nails on a chalkboard with birds cawing in mass. The sound was deafening, but so sweet to her.

Naruto didn't have much to do other than set whatever explosives he had off in areas that were key to the factory. He blew up the controls to the machinery just in case they tried to get the place up and running again. He turned it into hunks of twisted ripped metal. He made sure that all the mechanical structures were destroyed before moving to the biggest target of it all: The main set of flow pipes that spilled the leftovers into the river. Hitting it wasn't part of the plan, but if they wanted to shut the factory down and make it seem like the villagers had done it, they had to hit the main thing they would hit.

"You know what I always have found strange about us?" Naruto started for the pipes. "When we do missions like these… we're always talking to each other. Yet when we do missions that are extremely dangerous, like that time when we took that stronghold to take back Rehka and the girls, we hardly spoke at all. Why is that?"

"Perhaps it's because we know that we're just that good." Lyra laughed a bit at her own joke. "I think it's because we know what we can and cannot do. In this case, we talk because we are nervous about the effects this will have on our secrecy in the Fire Nation. We're basically trying to remain hidden and get to where we need to go without being spotted."

"_That's understandable." _Zentrai paused up on the catwalk and put his back to it. _"We've always been curious about our own actions. Among all the Assassins, Blindside, Topaz, and Blink are the only ones to share our worries because they are fearful of what will happen at the end of the war, rather than the present. I know we've made a lot of enemies in our own right."_

"As true as that is, I highly doubt that this war will end just with the destruction of Ozai. A hundred years of hate, blood, and death have consumed everyone. Anyone that the Fire Nation ever hurt will continue to hate them. And the Fire Nation will hate anyone that killed or wounded one of their own. Plus there is also the change that will happen should the war just suddenly end with the Fire Nation just giving up."

"You think that someone that believes in peace will ascend to the throne?" Naruto nodded. "I highly doubt anyone can do it. They would have to be someone that can take all the pain and hatred on his shoulders that the Fire Nation has dealt out. Even the strongest of people will not be able to do it. I highly doubt that someone could take it all and still lead their nation. Why do you think that so many people have tried and failed to take up the mantle as our leader?"

"_I know what you mean, Lyra. I could never order people to their deaths for information. I can't trade lives for time." _The mute paused and then smiled as Naruto and Lyra worked together to set the explosives. _"What are guys planning to do after the war?"_

Lyra paused in her thoughts and then smiled. "I aim to open up a dojo so I can teach Uncle Gen Fu's marital arts style. I want to honor him by teaching it to others. That's what I want to do."

The mute laughed mentally and turned to face them. They had slapped a dozen explosive pouches to the inside of each pipe. They had no idea on how much abuse they could take since they were taking in heated liquid and dumping it into the river.

"_I want to get on my knees and ask every girl I've slept with, both at brothels and in every village I visited, to marry me." _

Naruto paused as he finished setting up the last one. "That's like five hundred women or so. There is no way in hell you can marry that many women, Zentrai. Sure some people can have multiple wives, but they are usually high ranking officials or people that are like Aang in the fact that they are the last of their kind. But as for you, there is no way you'll get it."

"_You're just mad because you can't get any from Ty Lee at the moment." _Naruto gave his friend a sideways glance with a light scowl on his features. _"Next time you see her; you should just stick your dick in her and be done with it. Give her a test rid and see how she works. If you don't like her, send her to me and I'll work out the kinks."_

"Not funny."

The blond stepped away from the charge and moved into a dark corner for cover. He put his head against the wall as the charges went off and collapsed the pipes, permanently clogging them with debris and molten metal as other charges went off in the vats of molten metal. They were flooded and the entire structure groaned in protest to all the damage it had undergone.

"_It's not her fault she's away, man. It's your fault she's away." _Naruto could feel his mental laugh in his head. It was aggravating at the moment. _"She's probably worried about you. Chances are she masturbating to you right now in her room as she worries about your health. Just think about it. She's probably grabbing her boobs and fingeri-"_

"Enough."

"_Just think about it for a moment, Naruto. She's chasing after you for answers and you could use that to your advantage to have sex with her. She wants to know about the specter she saw each time you used your power. And she also wants to know about why you have it. If you just word it-"_

"Drop it, Zentrai." Naruto turned a cold shoulder to him. "With the way Aang is and the way they're making us do things, I highly doubt this war will end during my life span." They paused, but Zentrai seemed annoyed. "Aang wanted to go to school to be a normal kid. He's not normal. He's the Avatar."

"In his defense, he was forced into being the Avatar at a young age." Lyra cut in. "But you are right. He has a duty to the world and all he wants to do is be normal for as long as he can. I don't think he can take out the Fire Lord with the way he does things. We'll most likely have to be the one to take him out."

"_That's supposing we can get in there." _Zentrai smiled and looked out at the moon. It was dipping beneath some large rock mounds. _"Her boobs were a big smaller than that, Naruto." _The blond shouted in anger, grabbed an explosive, lit it, and threw it at his friend. The mute caught it with his bending and threw it at the last thing that needed to be taken out. _"So you know; the explosives have magnesium in it. That's a form of metal. So I can use explosives too. I had been wanting to test it for a while, but never got around to it. Thanks!" _

"We're leaving." Naruto turned and started walking. He grumbled something about idiot mutes as he departed.

(-)

Morning arose earlier then what anyone expected. Though unknown to the Assassins, Katara and Aang had slipped off to destroy the factory, only to realize that it had already been taken care of. They had returned after checking the place out, but were a bit surprised to see Naruto sitting on the edge of the cliff face with his eyes scanning the village. They paid him no mind and went on to their camp. Aang laughed as they rounded a corner where Zentrai was reading his porn while Sokka and Toph looked angry with them.

"Hi… Sokka… we were just out on a… morning walk."

She knew was caught by the look, if it really was a look, that Toph was shooting her. She could never tell when she wasn't shouting at her. Toph only showed emotions when she talked, never when she walked around and was silent. But it was pretty sure she was caught. Toph could tell she was lying, along with Sokka.

"Oh really…"

"_We know you're the Painted Lady, Katara." _Zentrai cut in. He snapped his book shut. Sokka shot him a hurt look. _"I don't want to listen to any of you arguing over this. Katara, I know you don't like me doing it, but I read your mind. I know what you've been doing and what you've been feeding Appa. And yes, he is sick of the berries." _They stared at him for a brief moment before his eyes narrowed into slits. _"We're leaving right now." _

Naruto approached them with Rai at his side. Shibaru whined and licked Rai for comfort as the blond said, "Fire Nation troops are on the way to the village. Not a big force, but they won't survive the assault. We need to go, but stay low so they don't spot Appa."

"Wait!" Katara shouted. "The Fire Nation is on their way to the village? Why?"

"No clue. But we need to leave. Chances are our cover might be blown thanks to you. Now we need to get moving." Katara ran for the cliff side to see for herself. Naruto turned, grabbing hold of his sword as he did, and stopped her by placing it in front of her. "If you stick your head out now or go to help them, you risk our safety and our cover. We're leaving."

"No we're not! They need help." She batted his sword away and began walking.

"If you stick your head out, I'll cut it off."

Katara stopped and stared at him. Naruto was also impossible to read. He didn't show normal emotions the way others did. His emotions were always mixed. She could tell. She knew that one of the emotions in his eyes was anger. But the other one, the one that truly confused her, was the last one in his eyes. They were always mixed with polar opposites. Whatever was in his eyes was something that didn't match up with hatred.

Naruto pointed his sword at her throat and continued to stare at her. "We're leaving. This is not up for debate."

She gently touched the tip of the sword and pushed it away. "What would you have rather had me do, you heartless jerk."

Naruto closed his eyes. She wanted to save them but they couldn't do that. It was too dangerous.

"Leave. Do nothing!" Sokka shouted at her. Naruto stared at and then nodded. She looked ready to fight. "Katara, what you did put our whole mission in jeopardy! I'm with Naruto on this. We have to leave." The team, minus Katara, moved for Appa. Aang hesitated and looked to Katara as Sokka said, "We have to stay low or we risk being seen."

"I'm going down to the village to help them." Lyra turned and punched the young Waterbender in the gut with a quick work of Earthbending. Katara gasped in pain as she doubled over and clutched the rock with all her might. It hurt a lot more then what she thought it would. "How… How can you leave them to die?" She huffed out.

"_Simple," _Zentrai replied. _"I don't know them and we don't even know why they moved out to hit them. For all we know they could be trying to get money from them. Or maybe they just had their fill of them and are doing away with them. Besides, it's better if they die. They're suffering and this will end it." _The mute calmly stepped up to her and knocked her out with a quick jab to a pressure point. _"We're leaving now, guys. Stop standing around. Naruto, take point." _

The blond nodded and departed.

(-)

Katara awoke in a cold sweat, but didn't get up. She didn't know where she was, but she knew she was on the ground. There was no campfire, and the only light came from the stars in the night sky.

The young female turned over, wincing as she did, and spied Naruto sitting next to a tree with his large sword in hand. A moment of terror filled her, but she soon stuffed it down. If they wanted to kill her, they'd have done it already. She was still alive and she couldn't picture him being the type to let you know it was coming.

He stared at her for a few minutes in silence before looking away. She blinked and registered what it was that she had seen in his eyes.

_He didn't want to leave them either… He's sad because he has the power to save them but couldn't because of Aang. _She looked back at the sky and cried silent tears for the slain villagers that had suffered for something that they hadn't done.

A/N

Okay, I know we changed up this episode a bit, but honestly, the one thing that bugged me about this episode, which never made sense, was the lack of security at the Factory. I mean, come on. It's a giant factory that's making important stuff for the Fire Nation, in a war, and they don't even have guards. Not to mention that it never made sense to me on how no one would report their actions, namely a Spirit, just suddenly showing up out of the blue for no reason and kicking butt. I'm sorry, but I would have investigated and thought, "Hey, there's an invasion coming soon, and that spot was kind of critical to us. Maybe that's the way they are coming in."


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 21

"The stars are beautiful tonight."

Naruto nodded mutely. Their gaze wasn't on the stars though. A magical wonder had appeared before them all tonight. A meteor shower had started roughly an hour ago, just after sunset. The entire team had been in the process of setting up camp when Katara noticed a streaking blaze pressed against the black sky. Interested in what it was, she turned and started watching the sky before seeing another one appear. After two more appeared and the entire team, minus Toph of course, spotted them, they had stopped to watch what had turned into a meteor shower.

Naruto had very little understanding on it, but he knew enough to know that they were meteors and that they weren't that dangerous unless one of them just randomly started heading for them. What he knew about them from where he was from was that they were very powerful, but also very deadly. Sumaru had been the one to explain that to him before he had left their village. A bunch of their ninja had gotten sick because they were ordered to train near the stone, which resulted in them absorbing its energy. It was very powerful, and Naruto, after two and half years of training, believed that it was equal to the strength of his one-tailed form when he used Kyuubi's power. Sadly, he had no way of testing that, but he was happy with the knowledge regardless now.

"It kind of makes you realize how small and insignificant we all are." Sokka told them.

Toph shrugged. "You've seen nothing once; you've seen it a thousand times."

Naruto laughed at Toph's idea of a joke. It was sad that she couldn't watch the spectacle, but she probably wouldn't have watched it either way. "Don't feel too bad, Toph. I've seen a great many things, and some of them are actually pretty cool to watch over and over again. This," he laughed, "is just one of the things I hardly get to see. Now the Northern Lights are another thing. I saw those a lot when I was younger."

She shrugged, offering no reply to that. She wouldn't be enticed into a debate on what was "cool" to watch.

A bright twinkly sparkled in the distance, alerting Sokka to a greater promise for the meteor shower they were witnessing. It grew in size and Sokka, not being one to keep his mouth shut, spouted off, "You've never not seen anything like this."

Naruto stared at the oncoming projectile. Were it not for the blue flames and the sheer size of it, he would have thought it was an attack masked by the meteor shower. The meteor roared over their heads, missing them by a dozen kilometers easy, but they still felt the intense heat it generated as it roared over them. It sailed straight over them and slammed down about fifteen kilometers away from them, putting it very close to the village. Naruto had no doubt that with the roar it generated and the sound it made when it impacted that the village had heard it.

Toph was the first to rise out of them all and blinked her eyes. She couldn't see what had happened, but she had a pretty good idea with her feet.

"Let's get down there," Lyra shouted.

Naruto stared at her for a moment and looked in the direction of the blaze. The blond glanced back at Zentrai as he said, "You've never not seen anything like this before," repeating what Sokka said. Sokka gave him a sharp glance and then dismissed it. "You do realize that's double negative."

"_That would mean it equals a positive." _Zentrai added. Sokka felt proud to have Zentrai defending him. _"Though, that is the weirdest thing I've heard all day." _

"Everyone has to be a critic." Sokka grumbled.

Appa flew over the cliff and vanished into the darkness.

(-)

"You'll be heading to Ember Island for the weekend while I attend a meeting with my advisors."

With those words spoken to him, Zuko felt like a child again. He was being sent away on what felt like a forced vacation. He didn't mind vacations, but when they were forced he hated them. Even as a child he hated. But now he hated them even more. His father was ditching him.

He rolled over out of bed and stared at the sparkling night sky through the curtain. He snorted at the sky and rushed to the window, tearing the curtains open so he could look at the sky clearly. It didn't make him feel any better. He still felt like they were mocking him and the vacation was still being forced.

Zuko was happy to get away from his father, not like he spent enough time with him anyways. When he had returned home he thought his father would be happy with him. He thought he'd be happy. But he wasn't. He felt sick. He felt angry. Something stirred inside him that he couldn't explain or grasp. It was like a memory that was hiding in some dark corner of your mind. You can remember flashes of, a conversation here, a face there, but never the whole thing. He didn't understand why he was angry, he just knew he was.

He snorted and gripped the railing.

The young prince sighed explosively. Times were strange for him. He was home but he felt like a stranger. He felt out of place. The mark he once hated now seemed to be a mark that people thought he should be proud of. They said it gave him character, whatever that meant. He wanted it gone, but he wondered if really mattered. It worked right. Sure his skin was a little funky to the touch, but it worked like the rest of his body did.

"I need some fresh air," he said to himself.

He walked to his door and tore it open. He was clad in only some pants and a shirt. It sufficed, though he knew that it would be frowned upon. A prince, even a formerly banished one, should have the decency to wear normal clothes. He hated that part. No one cared when he was banished with what he wore. He was shirtless when he trained in the summer. He wore heavy clothing in the winter. He got a taste of civilian life and learned pretty fast that you only wear what you need.

Zuko envied them for that. A commoners' life, in terms of clothing they wore, was a lot better than theirs at time. He hated getting dressed up for no reason other than to look good for the crowds when he went for a walk or rode around. They could wear whatever they wanted, when they wanted, and how they wanted. It was paradise compared to him. Sure he was royalty, but that didn't mean he couldn't go out in just some pants and a shirt once in a while.

His feet touched the cold earth and he shivered momentarily before pushing it all away as he started walking. He walked aimlessly for minutes as he thought about the trip. He knew everything was being handled by his servants. They would pack his clothes for him so he didn't have to. It felt great to have those guys back, but he still felt like the odd man out by letting them do it. And he knew they would insist on having him do things their way, the Royal Way, not his way.

He stopped momentarily and soon sighed. "I'll have to go get some swim trunks," he realized.

How long had it been since he had gone actually swimming, and not swimming because his life depended on it? He pondered on that for a moment before shrugging. He had forgotten, but what else was actually new to him now? Just because he had forgotten about the last time he swam without being in danger or to catch something didn't mean anything to him.

Zuko continued on his aimless path for another ten minutes before ending up at a small park. It was much of a park, just a few trees and a small pound with some floating candles. There were some small lanterns here and there, but there wasn't much to it.

He found a bench and sat down under a large tree. He stared at the motionless water for what felt like eternity as he tried to understand his situation and who was going to Ember Island. He had invited Mai, but she didn't seem too thrilled with the idea. He knew his sister was going, that was the only reason he even agreed to go in the end. But he didn't know if anyone else was coming with them.

"What's on your mind?"

Zuko spun around. He looked left and right and then blinked stupidly for a moment.

"Up here."

He glanced up into the tree and spied Ty Lee. She was hanging upside down. Her face was red, either from the fact she was caught in a simple pink training shirt and pants, or because the blood was rushing to her head. He wasn't sure.

She twisted awkwardly and soon fell to the ground, landing perfectly on her feet in front of him. Once she was on the ground and smiling, she walked over to him and sat down in front of the bench, her back pressed against it. "So what's on your mind?"

"Nothing."

"I can tell that you're lying."

Zuko cursed himself mentally. He had forgotten that she could see auras. How could he forget that?

"So what's on your mind?" She repeated her former question as she glanced at the night sky. It was littered with meteorites burning in the heavens. She didn't feel very fortunate to see such a spectacle, but she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Zuko looked to the small pound, his eyes staring straight in the wavering flames. He had no idea what was really on his mind. He felt lost inside himself. He didn't know where to begin. But he didn't know how to begin either. He was utterly lost and slowly losing himself deeper to his anger and his questions on why he was angry.

"Forget it." He gave her a confused glance. "I can tell you have a lot on your mind. So much so, that you don't know where to begin." The young acrobat glanced at the water. "I know you."

Zuko smiled. She understood him. Maybe she understood him. He wasn't sure. Ty Lee was a little out there at times, but now she seemed to be coming down to his level. He could see it in her eyes, probably like how she saw in his, that she was deep in thought too. In the all the time he had known her he had never once seen her get truly confused. She could make the face and pretend to be confused, but she had never truly been confused. At least to his knowledge she had never been confused.

Clasping his hands together, he smiled. "You know that I'm going on a trip to Ember Island, right?" She nodded mutely. "Mai's coming with me." She nodded again. He knew she wasn't listening now. But why stop and yell at her? "Do you wanna come with us?"

Ty Lee glanced at him without turning her head. "Who's coming outside of Mai?"

"My sister." Ty Lee glanced into the water. There was an odd shift in her demeanor that he didn't understand. "Do you wanna come or not?"

Ty Lee sighed inwardly and put on her thoughtful expression. She was pretending to be deep in thought now. She was thinking about it. She was thinking about going. But that meant she'd be around Azula. She really didn't want to be around her, but she didn't want to come off as being strange. It would be strange for her to turn down his offer. She knew that much. If she turned it down it would look strange.

"Well?"

"Sure."

Zuko stared at her. He was certain there was a grind to her voice, almost like the answer was forced. In all his times knowing her she had never sounded so… angry.

"Alright… We leave tomorrow." He stood up and stared back at the water. "Ty Lee, is something the matter?" She stared at him and offered a blinking expression. "Forget it." He walked off, leaving the girl to her thoughts.

(-)

Sokka, Naruto, and Lyra stood a hundred meters away from the blazing inferno for their safety. With the fire growing at a steady rate, Naruto had pulled Sokka back to keep him safe, along with Momo. Aang, Lyra, Toph, and Katara with Appa were going to take care of the fire while the Non-Benders stood back and watched. Zentrai couldn't do anything to help them without fanning the flames.

"Do you really have to kiss when you get married?"

Sokka and Zentrai were pulled from their thoughts at the blonde's question.

"Excuse me?" Sokka blinked.

"Do you really have to kiss when you get married?" Naruto repeated.

Zentrai shrugged. _"Not sure. But why do you ask?" _

"Just thought I'd try to start topic as we watch are friends be heroes and blow our cover… as usual."

Zentrai shrugged again and began thinking on the question. It was out there for sure, but it was a valid question.

"I have no idea." Sokka stopped and then chuckled. "Why? Are you afraid of kissing girls?"

"I'm more scared of getting killed off by either old age or boredom rather than kissing a girl, Sokka. I've had sex before." Sokka stared at him. "The only reason I asked is because I'm bored and I'm trying to keep my mind cleared since I don't feel like screaming at your friends." He stressed that part. Sokka winced and the blond continued. "I mean can't you just, I don't know, high-five or something? I've never heard of a wedding where the two actually didn't kiss, but I can understand on how it's a momentous occasion. It's a sacred thing. My only question is: can you do something else other than kiss?"

"_Naruto, when you marry Ty Lee, which you will when the war is over since I want her as a sister-in-law, you can high-five her and make history as the World's Stupidest Groom." _

"I'm not getting married nor am I marrying Ty Lee!"

"_You know how many guys say that a year and then end up marrying the ugly girl at school?"_

"Zentrai, shut up. I was asking a simple question that you blew out of proportions."

"_You asked a stupid question that I blew out proportions. There's a difference. And you will marry Ty Lee because I want her as a sister-in-law that I want to fuck behind your back. You have no say in this."_

"Zentrai, if you had a hot sister, would you fuck her?"

"_How hot?" _

Naruto sighed and crashed onto his back in frustration. Sokka laughed at him, his thoughts now away from the fact that he was feeling useless without being able to make things fly around.

Another explosion rocked the landscape. The flames were gone. Instead snow was now falling. Naruto sighed explosively as Lyra started screaming at them about how stupid this was. She helped them out, but it was still stupid for Aang to use the water that Katara brought him to put out the flames by icing the place and making snow.

"I should just kill them all." Naruto finally groaned out. Sokka shot him a wide eyed look of fear. "Then again, we do know some people here, so I say it works out okay. Now we just need to lay low for a while." He stood up and cracked his back. "No point in heading into town tonight. Everything will be closed. We're sleeping outside." He turned and started walking back to camp.

(-)

"I want you to fight me for real!"

Shadow Blade stopped in his tracks and turned to the man who dared to usher a challenge at him. He was already near dead, cut a dozen times over by his sword, and already gasping for air. A few more blows and he'd be dead. A few more hours without medical treatment and he'd be dead. Either way, with his way of fighting, the man was going to die.

"I have no desire to kill you. You did attack me, but I don't favor killing people that can't defend themselves. This fight is over. Leave here and receive medical attention before you die. There is no point in a senseless death. It's meaningless." He turned away from him and began walking. The man gasped for air and then screamed as he charged. Shadow Blade closed his eyes in sympathy for him. He turned so fast and drew his sword that the man passed him, his sword still high in the air, that he didn't register the blow that cut him in two until his body collapsed.

Shadow Blade flicked his blade to remove the excess blood and resumed his walking. The man wasn't dead yet. He'd die a faster death now, but it would be far more painful.

For ten minutes as he walked he listened to the screaming man. His voice was carried by the wind as he marched on his way until finally the screams stopped.

He stopped when he noticed it was gone and looked in the direction of the fallen man. He wondered why the man had challenged him in the first place. It was a well-known fact that Shadow Blade was the second strongest Swordsman in the Fire Nation. He never bothered with the first place because it was owned by his father, a legendary swordsman and sword maker in the Fire Nation. But the man that attacked him still puzzled him.

_Are we so senseless now in times of war that we must prove ourselves to others to gain acceptance. _He wondered about that for a moment. He decided it wasn't worth his time. In the grand scheme of things, another potential Fire Nation soldier had just been killed. One less person to deal with in the war. But it also had been a pointless death that could have been avoided. "Human arrogance at its finest," he concluded.

He walked the rest of the way in silence, stopping only at his usual stopping ground.

A thick fog rolled in. His eyelids lowered to show sadness. He was truly sad for this place.

Shadow Blade started walking again and soon found the center of it all. "Xin Toju, I'm here to pray for your release once more." He bowed his head and closed his eyes.

(-)

Whatever was on his plate was not what Naruto wanted. It looked alive to be honest. He gave it a cautious poke and it squeaked. It was dead for sure, but the squeak had him recoiling in utter disgust.

"Not going to eat your… whatever that is?" Lyra nearly laughed at the face he made. "Here," she said. She slid her plate to him and they shared a meal. Her food was at least confirmed to be totally dead.

"I can't believe how close the fire was to this town." Katara said to them.

Aang and Naruto nodded mutely, deciding to eat their food rather than talk about it.

"_It's probably best you don't' mention it." _Zentrai informed them. With his head down no one would suspect his way of communication with them.

"Alright," Toph declared unhappy. She munched on her food and sighed loudly. "So you guys said you'd been here before, right? What's there to do in this town?"

"No much." Lyra grabbed one of the pieces of lettuce before Naruto could. "You hate vegetables."

"So? Doesn't mean I won't eat it." He gave it a quick poke and a sniff before eating it. She stared at him. "What?"

"Must you treat everything like a threat?"

"Probably."

She sighed. "You're so strange. Are all men like this?" Naruto chuckled at her joke.

"What is there to do in this town?" Aang said, trying his hardest to change the topic of conversation. He took a sip of his drink, his gaze resting on the older teens.

"Not much. They had a tournament here a while back for swordsman. One of our friends entered it and won the contest. He's a good guy. Real solid. Scary as hell if you piss him off though." Naruto informed them. He took a sip of his drink and continued once he sat it down. "You've meet him once, though we can't mention him by name. He's kind of a scary guy to even the locals."

"Why's that?" Katara asked.

"You'd have to get him to fight you serious to see what I mean." Naruto maneuvered around the question. "Anyways, we can get some supplies here before we leave. I need to actually speak with someone before we depart anyways. And I'm sure I need my weapons checked again."

Zentrai nodded in understanding as he turned and poked Sokka in the back of the head. _"Cheer up," _he demanded. _"We'll take you shopping in a minute if that'll make you happy." _

(-)

Naruto stared at the weapon store with a turned up nose. "I hate these places." He told them again. Lyra shrugged it off and went inside. "I'll wait out here. I'd rather not waste my time in there. Come get me when you're done." He turned and marched off with Zentrai tailing after him.

Lyra watched him go with a shrug before returning her gaze to the weapons in the store.

"Why are you following me?"

"_I have no intention of being in there while he tries out every weapon in there." _Zentrai informed him. Naruto nodded mutely to that. _"Besides, I wanna check something here before we leave. I mean, it's not every day we get to see an old friend." _Naruto nodded mutely again. Zentrai tried to read his thought but to no avail. Naruto was keeping his thoughts to himself if he was thinking of anything. _"Do you think Sokka really just needs a weapon to feel better?" _

"Probably," Naruto answered quickly. He was looking for something in the market. Zentrai sighed as the blond stopped in front of the local tea shop. "We're here to meet someone… hopefully."

They entered and the room went quiet. Ten men were inside with two women. Their sudden appearance, or probably Naruto's large weapon, had them stopping all conversations and staring at them. Zentrai actually smirked at the thoughts that flowed through their minds. It was pretty interesting to him to know how highly a few of them thought of themselves. They actually thought they could beat them.

Naruto moved to the bar and sat down with Zentrai doing the same. One of the girls moved to them, her hand twitching as if she were ready to take their order.

"Can you tell me where Shin the Shadow Blade is?" The men rose and left so fast that Naruto thought they'd get stuck in the door. "Nice to see his reputation hasn't dulled in the time he was away."

"Shin the Shadow Blade," she repeated carefully. Her left eye twitched nervously. "I haven't seen him as of late. Rumor has it he's been spending his time between here and North Chung-Ling?"

"You haven't been here in long, have you?" Naruto nodded. "They renamed the city Fire Fountain City due to the fire fountain of which it is now known for. It happened a few months ago when they completed the fountain in honor of the Fire Lord."

"_Interesting," _Zentrai cut in. He made sure to move his mouth to give the illusion that he was talking. _"But what's between here and Fire Fountain City?"_

The girl look a bit perplexed but soon answered. "There's nothing really between the two villages per say. There was, at one time, a large village, but it was destroyed some seventy years ago. No one has gone back to rebuild it because it's cursed."

"How so?"

"A few miles out, there is a large pit. A graveyard if you will. It stands like some monument to evil for us all. Some seventy years ago the Earth Kingdom had managed to get this far in and dug themselves in real deep. My grandmother told me stories about it when I was little. She said it was a very scary time. She said that the heathens of the world had managed to get in only because our soldiers were spread too thin. As a result they were allowed to dig in real deep. They made a village right there and started harassing even our village and Fire Fountain City as well until our soldiers put them down. Some of the soldiers that survived that battle still talk about it as the bloodiest battle to have ever been fought and the strangest."

"Why's that?"

The girl looked left and right before leaning closer. The two Assassins leaned forward as she whispered, "It's cursed."

Naruto was the first to lean back. Zentrai did a moment later, only because he was reading her mind.

"The land is said to be haunted by the fallen and people who go near it vanish."

"Where is this place?"

"You can't miss it. It's the only place where an endless sight of swords is located. They're stuck in the ground like gravestones for the dead. The soil is black and nothing grows there. And it's always covered in a thick fog." She lowered her hands and placed them on the bar. "Is there anything else you'd like?"

"_A sweet night alone with you." _Naruto gave Zentrai a frosty glare. _"Just kidding." _He laughed and then said their thanks before departing. _"She's not lying. The place has been tagged as a red zone. No one is allowed to go near it." _

"_Why would Blindside decide to go near it then?"_

"_His belief in the sword is probably what makes him go there. I'll look into it while we're here. You keep protecting the Avatar, Naruto. I know where the library is. I'll look into it." _He patted him on the shoulder and departed.

Naruto watched him go and then returned to the weapon shop.

(-)

Lyra had seen a lot of weapons in her life as the secondary leader of the Assassins. She had seen weapons so dangerous that not even the highest master in that class of weapon would use them. She had seen bladed Nunchucks. A staff with spiked balls on the end with a chain that ran through the staff, giving it extra range and extra hitting power. She had seen a pair of Nunchucks that had three sticks connected via one loop. She had even seen a sword that split into a chain with sword blades to it. She had seen her fair share of strange weapons.

But now, she was seeing her fair share of strange people. Namely Sokka.

While this place did not have the weapons she had seen, she had seen most of them in this shop. Clubs, spears, swords, chain-sickles, tridents, and large hammers all decorated the walls. Their treasured items were put on display on the wall within arms' reach. She had to admit that some of them were pretty interesting, and just a bit out there, but not like the weapons that no one wanted to master.

And Sokka was trying all of them. He had tried the spear. He had tried the chain-sickle. He had tried the swords, the clubs, the axes, you name it he tried it. And while it was funny to watch, it was annoying as hell to see him using them with bandit level skills. He used his swords like he was chopping up food. He tried to use the spear, but it wobbled from his running. He tried to use the chain-sickle, but it wrapped around him tight. He tried every kind of weapon they had to offer, big or small, light or heavy, but nothing worked for him. She was beginning to believe that he was not only a failure as a warrior, but also a complete idiot.

She turned away and decided to wait by the exit for them. Not two minutes later did they return, but Sokka was empty handed. He was smiling though. That was enough to worry her just a bit.

"I'm going to go train with the Master," Sokka announced.

"What 'Master'?"

Sokka's smile brightened. "Master Piandao, the greatest swordsman and sword maker in all of the Fire Nation." She kept her thoughts on that to herself. "The shopkeeper said he lives in the castle right up the hill. I'll go see him and train with him. A few days of training and we'll be on our way again."

Lyra chewed on her lip and flexed her hand. Something wasn't fitting with this at the moment. But she had to agree to it. "Fine," she conceded. "But don't be surprised if he turns you away."

They departed and she followed, but at a slower pace. She had no intentions of telling him that it took years to master the art of the sword.

(-)

Drunkard stared at the bottle in his hand.

"It doesn't work like it used to."

He took a big drink and sighed. No matter how much he drank or how hard he actually hit the bottle, it didn't take away the memories. Not on today anyways. It never took away the memories on days like today.

Today marked the anniversary of his wife's death. It was a hard thing to take in for him. She was the reason he joined the Assassins. He lost his entire family. His family was gone. His wife. His kids. Even his pets were gone. He lost it all because of the war. Before he had hit the bottle he had been a happy man, now he was reduced to this. An old man that was hard on the bottle and even harder on life. He never gave up on the hope that the war would end. He wanted to see this through to the end. But as time went on it got harder for him. He started to hit the bottle. He started to be rough around the edges.

He sat the empty bottle down and grabbed another. It was the cheap stuff now. It smelt horrible. It may have smelt bad but it tasted good to him. Cheap stuff tasted semi good but it also had an after effect to him. It was like there was a time delay for it to kick in and started working the moment you didn't need it to. He used this stuff on days like this. It was so he could avoid the graveyard where she was. He never wanted to remember going up there or crying his eyes out. He knew he did, but he was just so drunk that by then he couldn't remember crying.

He drank until it was half empty and then stood up. He wobbled, growled, and then threw the bottle at the wall. Good waste of sake, but he didn't know why he threw it. He stood there just staring at the stain on the wall for a minute before sighing. Getting angry did nothing for him. It just made him feel worse.

Drunkard reached into the cumbered and retrieved another bottle. It was the cheap stuff, but it was the good cheap stuff. He pulled the cork and started drinking, stopping only when he managed to stumble out the door and up to the graveyard. He passed a dozen headstones, wobbled around most of them, and stopped at a grave with no name on it. He knew it was hers' because she was the only one to have a pink headstone rather than the ugly gray or silver ones. He stared down at it, took a swig of his drink, and crashed onto his butt.

"You were the best damn thing I ever had," he mumbled. He wasn't drunk enough yet to not remember this. He knew that and hit the bottle again. He drank it all and then stared at it. He hadn't brought another one with him. He stared at the empty bottle and then at the headstone. Anger flooded him and he bashed the empty bottle on the stone. It shattered and he hissed at both the bottle and the stone as if they had done it on purpose. "You were an evil bitch from which there was no escape from." He stood up and walked off.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and then a lightning bolt struck the ground. More thunder rumbled overhead and lightning bolts followed as if they were being called by the angry soul that now lay beneath the cold earth. He hissed it and threw the remains of his empty bottle at the sky. It flew through the air and dropped a good ten feet away from him. He stumbled from the force of the throw and hit the ground fast first. And like last year, he cried.

(-)

_Libraries are the same wherever you go, _Zentrai thought in a rare moment of anger.

The library was large, not as large as the one in the No Name Village, but it was large regardless. It was stocked with all the information on the Fire Nation school system, islands, previous Fire Lords, all the great and monumental battles that they had ever fought in, and it went into great detail on each of the Nation's cultures that they had either recorded before the war or during it. The Air Nomad was partially wrong, but Zentrai would overlook it for the time. Propaganda was a terrible thing.

He was happy that the entire war section was dated by years rather than by the name and place. There were no records on their operation names, but he didn't need that. What he needed was a war that had been fought here on their very home turf against Earth Kingdom soldiers. He was currently reading one from sixty-nine years back and was already at the last page. It held nothing on a battle that was fought here in the Fire Nation, so he put it up and went to the next year. He flipped through it until he got to the end and was forced to put it up. It had nothing as well.

The mute glanced over his left and eyed the librarian. She looked ancient and evil. She was glaring at everyone that entered the room. Her thoughts were closed to him. He wondered if she knew what he was, or if she was just so old that she didn't think, rather just acted.

"_Excuse me,"_ he said. She turned with a creaking sound and glared at him, fiercely. _"I was looking for a book on a battle that happened here about seventy years ago between here and Fire Fountain City. Do you have any information on it?"_

The old woman stared at him for a long time before standing with a loud groan. He swore he heard her leg scream in protest as she rose and walked with a hunched back towards a small rack where the cards were located. Her glare did not leave her face as she pulled the drawer out and began sifting through them with a slow and tender motion. It never sped up.

"Here," she hissed. He took a card and stared at it. "Two rows down on the left." She glared at him some more and then returned to her chair.

The mute turned without a word and walked towards the designated isle. He turned down the aisle and found the book. It was probably as old as she was. It was covered in a thick layer of dust. And when he pulled it out a spider crawled out. He felt bad for the books more than he did for the students.

He walked back to the counter and gave the lady some money to pay for the book before leaving. She watched him go with a glare and he felt one thought cross her mind. _"God damn whipper snappers." _He laughed inwardly and was out the door.

(-)

Piandao enjoyed painting. It was more of a hobby now then a true craft. He had only taken it up to better his skills as a swordsman at first. He hated it then but loved it now. It was just the same as swinging a sword to him. Like a sword swing, you cannot take back a stroke of the brush. So he learned to swing his brush and never make a mistake by honing these skills with his swordsman skills.

"So you said you're traveling with the Avatar and his group?" He glanced over to his left just enough so that one eye made contact with the man he spoke with.

Black hair and a suit of armor that covered nearly everything but one arm and a large sword slung onto his shoulder; it was Naruto.

"Yes." Piandao returned to painting. Naruto shifted slightly before continuing. "I was hoping you could take a look at my main weapons for me. I haven't had a chance to have you or even Blindside inspect them in so long. I'm worried they might be breaking." The older male nodded swiftly and mutely, allowing the Assassin to continue. "I know I haven't kept in touch with you, Piandao, but I've been busy with other things."

"You don't need to apologize, Naruto. It wasn't too long ago that you were seeing me almost constantly." He sat the brush down and turned to face him. "I'm sorry that you haven't been by in a while. I understand that you've been busy. With the war getting worse day by day it was only natural that you and the others like you would be needed more often." Naruto nodded in understanding. "Word of your accomplishments has reached even me, so that in itself is an excuse for you to use, and a good one at that."

"But I could have refused."

"You could have. But think of all the lives you've saved by doing this. Think of the hundreds of lives you have saved by being there rather than here. As a member of the Order of the White Lotus, I fully understand your desire to save the innocent and punish the wicked."

"I wouldn't say the Fire Nation is wicked. That's a bit cruel even to them." Piandao nodded mutely. "War is war. This will only determine who is left when it's all said and done." Naruto moved to the windowsill and looked out at it. "I remember when Gen Fu brought us out here to train with you and Blindside. It's hard to believe that Blindside was actually a very shy and quiet person all those years ago."

"I know. But war changes people. No matter how much we deny it, it does in fact change us. Very few are capable of not changing during war."

The former blond nodded and glanced back at the old master. "Where's your son at? I need to speak with him."

The old master sighed. "He's at the fallen village praying to Xin Toju again. He goes to him every day he is here. He has always done this since he learned his tragic story." Piandao paused for a moment. Then: "When he learned the story he was… saddened by it. He wanted to believe that it was a lie I suppose. But when he learned the truth of it all, how the Fire Nation dealt with the soldiers that were there, I guess he just wanted to pray for them. You know the village was never given a proper burial. That's why the place is cursed… or so they say."

"What do you think it is?" Piandao was about to reply when the teen stood up and stared out the window. "What is he doing here?" The older man moved to the window and stared down at the teen that walked through the courtyard. "His name is Sokka. He's the son of Hakoda and sister to Katara. He's traveling with the Avatar and his Earthbending Teacher, Toph Bei Fong." Naruto glanced at the door and shook his head. "The fact that the others didn't come with him either means he came here because Lyra knows I'm here or he came to learn from you."

Piandao gave him a flat look before looking back at the teen. "Is he a good fighter?" His question was unanswered. When he turned to ask again, Naruto was gone. _I hate it when he does that. _

(-)

"You let him go to meet with Master Piandao?"

Lyra glanced up and over. She, along with the others, was sprawled out on the ground in the hot cannon in her respective underwear. With the others it was understandable. With her it wasn't. She never liked doing this because of Zentrai. But since he wasn't here at the moment it was pretty clear that she just didn't care.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"He needs a master, Naruto. Think of all the good it would bring him if he learns from Master Piandao. I mean, Blindside is a god among the Assassins for his swordsman skills that he learned from Master Piandao. Sokka could very well be the same."

"There difference here is the time table." Naruto sat down and sighed explosively.

Yes he was mad about this, but not because Sokka went to train with him. He was angry because the others had let him go most likely under the assumption that this would take a day or two. It wouldn't take a day or two. It would take years for him to be a Master Swordsman, and even then, he had to worry about Blindside. He wasn't very tolerable of Piandao training random people that didn't know jack about a sword or how to hold one.

"I'm not angry about this. I'm not even angry in the slightest or pissed about it. But he doesn't have enough time to master the art of the sword. Piandao is great, don't get me wrong, but this is insane." Naruto sighed once more. "How long did he say he'd be gone?"

"He said he'd be back tonight to give us the verdict and show us his 'mad skills'." Lyra gave him a sideways glance and sighed loudly. "I'm not sleeping on the ground like this when we have a friend here that will put us up." That got their attention. The conversation had gotten their attention as well, but they had believed they were talking about someone else. "Get your things together, guys. We're moving out."

Naruto rolled his eyes. His day just kept getting better.

(-)

"Sokka!" Piandao shouted.

The teen stopped in mid swing and was kicked in the back by Fat as a result. He hit the ground hard and groaned from the sudden blow and the fall to the ground as a result. He should have seen it coming.

"Concentrate on what you're doing." Sokka gave him a thumbs' up pose before rising to try again.

Piandao sighed mutely as he watched Sokka continue to train with the butler. He was pleased to say the least with Sokka's skills. He was showing great control over his swordsman skills that he was quickly learning. Piandao had given him a year to master at least some of the advanced skills he had. For him there were multiple stances that he used depending on the situation. Sokka was already starting to show some signs of knowing them. Whether this was by instinct alone or some skills he had, he didn't know. What he did know was that Sokka was very smart and creative with his way of doing things.

Of all the tests that he had given him, the ones with the brush were the most crucial of them all. He had told Sokka to write his name, which of course he was about to rush in and do. But Piandao's words to him had made him falter and hesitate. He got ink on his face as a result and after a few words Sokka had comically painted his face and smashed it into the paper. He had 'officially' stamped his name on the paper. It was a unique way of doing it, but he wouldn't complain any.

The next test had been landscape painting. Like the first test it involved a brush. But it was more than just about writing. It was about taking the lay of the land in. It was about remembering where everything was in a few seconds. In battle you only had a limited amount of time to take everything in. That was what he had wanted to teach him. He had brought him to the one of the most beautiful parts of the village. It was a breathtaking spot where he could clear his mind with the utmost of ease. He had Sokka paint in and in less than a few minutes Sokka had 'officially' painted what he saw.

The test before this had been rock gardening. Of course Sokka didn't understand and asked how it was possible to grow rocks. Piandao had decided to skip that and continue with the lecture on what he was to do. Of course Sokka failed in a unique way again, but still passed. Rock Gardening was about using your surroundings to your advantage. Sokka had taken a large rock, some moss, and placed them both under a nice tree with some shade. He made a make shift recliner as a result. Fat was not pleased.

And his last test was actually the real training. It was the stuff that everyone wanted to learn. Sokka was now learning how to wield a sword. He made him fight Fat with wooden swords and armor. If they got hit he'd notice and it would be counted as a win or lose fight.

Piandao had faith in Fat. Fat was a very skilled swordsman who was also a very good cook. It was one of the reasons why he trained him so long ago. Despite his size, Fat was very skilled with a sword and proving to be quiet a match for the younger opponent.

As their fights progressed, Piandao began to see something in Sokka that tickled his fancy. Sokka was learning a lot quicker than most people. He had no idea if it was just sheer dumb luck or actually skill, but Sokka was learning what to do and what not to do against Fat. Fat was predictable. There was no denying that. And Sokka was clearly picking up on that.

The old master took a sip of his drink and smiled as he watched Sokka swing and miss. He stumbled forward, turned, and got hit on the side on the head. It was an official killing blow. Sokka was dead or would have been dead if it was a real fight.

"Again?" Fat asked curiously.

Sokka opened his mouth but soon shut it when Piandao rose up. "Get the door," the older man ordered. He had a smile on his face. Fat didn't like it. It scared him when his master smiled like that.

(-)

Fat stared at the door. He knew who was behind it. There was just no mistaking the grin his master had given him. And in all honestly he knew this was coming. Piandao's son's sudden return had been the first clue that something was up. He knew that Piandao was a member of the Order of the White Lotus and that his son was a member of the Assassins. There was no way he could not know that. Their home had been used as a base on more than one occasion for one of their missions.

But his other clue was the grin Piandao had. He only smiled like that when Zentrai or Lyra showed up. Naruto never really made him smile in the same fashion. Sure his son could make him smile and laugh just like anyone else could, but the grin told the real story. He saw Zentrai like a true warrior, as if he wanted to fight him to prove that he was still young and strong enough to beat him like he did years ago when he first found him and handed him to the Assassins. That was years ago.

The last clue was the sudden order to have multiple rooms ready for guests. He always got that order because Piandao could very seldom kick someone out after he refused to train them. They traveled a great distance to ask for him to train them and he always denied them that. He saw nothing him. But he still gave them a room for the night to let them rest. If they did anything else he kicked them out, or worse, his son killed them. His son had a very frosty disposition on those his father trained.

Fat stared at the door for another ten seconds before slowly opening it. And as if some higher power were making fun of him, Zentrai, Naruto, and Lyra stood side by side with a few other teens. His first impulse was to shut the door. His second impulse was to run. Zentrai was a hell child in his youth and he had a dozen bad memories from dealing with him. All of them were unpleasant and he had no intention of reliving those any time soon.

"The Master's not in."

Naruto rolled his eyes and Lyra stepped forward. The others seemed confused.

Lyra grabbed Fat by his shirt collar and hauled him to her face. "If you don't let us in to speak with Shin or Piandao, I'm going to do very _terrible _things to you." He gulped and allowed them entrance. Pissing her off was the last thing he wanted.

(-)

The ocean breeze did nothing to calm Ty Lee down. It wasn't making her feel any better about what was going on right now. This was supposed to be fun but it seemed to be more of a nightmare then a real vacation. Azula was here. Azula, the one person she had been trying to avoid, was here. She was nervous. She had a reason to be. Azula seemed pissed about something. If Ty Lee didn't know any better it was the poison that was coursing through her that was making her so angry. The lines hadn't gone away, no matter what sort of treatment that she got. If they had done anything they had made it grow in size.

"How much longer 'till we make port?" Azula asked. The captain of the boat shrugged. He had no idea. The winds were unusually strong and the waves made it hard for him to steer the ship. Azula snorted at his reply and considered shooting him full of lightning. She couldn't do that. It would do her no good to kill the man. He was their ticket home. Her father had told her to not do anything dangerous or stupid that would bring shame to the family. "Stop pacing, Zuko. It's giving me a headache."

"Then stop looking at me." He hissed. She growled in response but soon let it go. Getting into a fight with him would also bring shame to their family. If it happened in public that is.

"Stop arguing. It's bad for your skin and it's making your auras all dingy." Ty Lee cut in.

"You would care about our auras and skin wouldn't you?" Zuko snapped. He didn't mean to.

Ty Lee turned away, but he swore he saw it again. He thought he saw anger flash in her eyes. Was it possible to make her mad? He had never considered her the type to get mad, but after traveling with Azula it had to be the result of her doing to make her that way.

"I'm sorry."

"No you're not," she mumbled. His aura didn't reflect his sorrow for what he said. She was just thankful that no one heard her. "So what do we plan on doing while we're here?"

Azula shot her a funny look but soon smiled. "Sun bathe," she offered up.

Mai snorted. "I'd rather die. How about we just sit on the beach, do nothing, and bask in the shade provided by umbrellas. I'm happy. Zuko will be happy. Ty Lee will be happy." Ty Lee didn't say anything. Nothing seemed to make her happy now that she was out of her room. Mai noted her reaction and smiled. "Or we can go swimming and try to attract as many boys as we want." Zuko growled at the image of Mai with another man. Mai smiled inwardly. "Jealous?"

"Me? No."

"Whatever you say, Zuko."

Zuko stared at his girlfriend in wonder for a moment before sighing. Things were changing for him. He wasn't sure if this was how Mai had simply started acting while he was gone or if this was just her being happy.

"I can see the island." Ty Lee stood up and walked below deck. The others watched her go, but said nothing to her.

"She's been awfully strange as of late." Azula commented. The two nodded mutely. "I wonder why."

Mai blinked for a moment. _I wonder if it has to do with you supposedly killing the only man she probably loves and could ever make her happy. _She wouldn't say that, but she did believe that to be the case.

(-)

Ty Lee stared down at the cot that was below deck with cold eyes. She felt like crying and she didn't know why. She may have appeared ditzy and clumsy and goofy, but she was really smart. She understood the human body so well that most doctors were jealous of her. She was proud of that. She was proud of a lot of things. But with all her knowledge came a heavy price. She couldn't understand why she was crying now.

She crashed onto the cot and buried her face in the soft pillow and cried.

(-)

"_Operation Black Storm was a heavy hitter on the world, namely the village that was stationed between here and North Chung-Ling, and lasted for two months." _Zentrai tossed the book on Piandao's desk.

The others sat around in the large study taking that in, just like how they had taken in the fact that they were friends with this man. They didn't go into full detail, but what they did learn was that Piandao had made all of the Assassin's weapons with his son, Shin. They had no clue as to who Shin was, but they understood that he was also a Master Swordsman and one for Sokka to look out for. But the battle itself was catching their interest at the moment.

"_The Earth Kingdom had been involved in the battle for four years at this point when they decided to send a covert team into a village between here and North Chung-Ling. They were the best of the best at the time. They were sent in under the cover of night with a captured Fire Navy Ship and infiltrated the village. The village they occupied was a small agricultural village. It actually grew produce for both villages in this area, and for some far off. Now, a small covert team wasn't enough here. They realized that they had a real chance at delaying the Fire Nation. Not stopping them. They were spread too thin at the time and that ultimately led to this."_

Zentrai didn't bother reading their minds. Their faces told him everything. They were shocked by this alone, but Naruto seemed more then annoyed.

"So they simply strolled in and took it over?" Sokka finally asked.

"_No. The village was too large for such a thing. They decided on a more rational course of action. They waited until they had enough people here to make the entire village vanish in one night and replace it with families from their village to continue growing produce. It was a ploy to make the Fire Nation believe that they hadn't been infiltrated. It worked for four years since that's how long it took for them to actually move in and then take out the village. Now, there are three records for this event, all of which confirm the same thing. The village held two thousand people, all of which were famers and livestock tenders. They made them vanish in one night. They disposed of the bodies by Earthbending and the illusion was completed. They never knew they were taken over, or rather, had been taken over for four years."_

"Wow," Toph cut in. "That's pretty impressive for the Earth Kingdom to take over Fire Nation territory just like that. Did you guys have anything to do with it?"

"_No. The Assassins were busy doing other things. But we did have spies keeping record of this. Our records match the Fire Nation's records and the Earth Kingdom's records up to a certain point." _Zentrai reached over and grabbed the tome and opened it to a certain page he had marked. _"The Fire Nation was clueless to what had happened for four more years. In that time they had all their messages intercepted and decoded. Their ships were captured and soon they were leading an army of Earth Kingdom soldiers via their ships. About a fourth of their ships were controlled by Earth Kingdom soldiers. However, it was short lived. The Fire Nation become aware of what was going on and soon started coding their messages in unique ways and gave bogus orders to all Ship Captains in order to figure out who the enemy was and wasn't."_

"_Now, two years before the battle they got one clue to what was going on. They captured a drunken man that had retired early on because of a leg wound that didn't heal right. They learned from him what had happened and were soon rushing back to their own borders to deal with the threat. However, they were too entrenched and it was near impossible to get them out. Plus, they had no idea if the information was truly accurate since the citizens still seemed like Fire Nation citizens. They were growing crops and selling them as they always had. So they thought the information was wrong. But they kept guards posted just in case. When one of the Fire Nation guards spotted some strange activity they knew that it was under the control of the Earth Kingdom."_

"_What made this so hard for the Fire Nation was that this one of the main agricultural spots at the time. It was one of the only ones for this area. The Fire Nation back then didn't have some of the things they have now, so they had to send them out in caravans that were all getting taken out by the Earth Kingdom soldiers that had taken up this area. They had to move their camp backs eighty miles in order to be safe from their raids. The Fire Nation was practically helpless for a long time until two months before the fall of the village. They had massed a large force to deal with them and had decided that it was best to strike in the middle of the day. The Fire Nation entrenched themselves deep about eight miles away from the village. It was then that the entire camp was destroyed by a legendary Swordsman named Xin Toju."_

"_Xin Toju was a legendary Swordsman among the Earth Kingdom. He was the first and only man to ever cut a stone in half with his sword without bending. He wasn't a bender. It was because of this that his skills were spoken about and what made him a legendary Swordsman. But he wasn't only known for this, he was also known for his tactical mindset. He was a genius with no equal. He alone destroyed the entire camp all on his own and left it in ruins. And it was at this time that the Fire Nation made a desperate last stand to root them out. He appeared on the battlefield where a major battle was taking place between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. He stood at the top of the pit and overlooked it all. His men were moved by his tears and when the Fire Nation fought them with Xin Toju present, they said that the Earth Kingdom soldiers fought with such vigor that they seemed possessed by a wicked spirit."_

"_Xin Toju watched this battle while crying. When the final soldier fell, the Fire Nation moved in to kill him. Now this is where the story splits between the Assassins records and the Fire Nation records. Our records show that he cried and fought for thirty minutes before he was taken down. But he fell to his own sword and sorrow. His sword shattered in his hands as he dropped to his knees and they said it looked like a million tears falling to the earth. He died because of a broken heart that was filled with sorrow. The Fire Nation's records say that he fell to five men who simultaneously stabbing him in the hearth with their weapons and that his sword was shattered by the fire of their attack."_

For a moment all was quiet. And then Naruto looked up. "The Fire Nation record is probably wrong. The only reason the Earth Kingdom has no record of this is because two months prior to the villages' fall they intercepted a message from the village and were able to cut all contact to the Earth Kingdom from the village. So they had no records on the final battle or the status of the soldiers they sent over here." Zentrai nodded. "And since the Fire Nation wanted them gone they torched the entire village as well, I take it?"

"_Yes. But they called it a cleansing." _

"How horrible." Katara hugged her knees to her chest for a moment. "We've always known the Fire Nation was evil. But to destroy an entire village for no reason other than that it was occupied by Earth Kingdom soldiers and possibly citizens is just cruel."

"That's why we have to win this war. We have to win this war to bring justice to all the fallen soldiers and to not let the Fire Nation take over the world." Sokka proclaimed.

"Evil is just a word to describe something or someone you don't like, Sokka." Aang informed him. His eyes were downcast as he spoke. "Sokka, the Fire Nation isn't evil. They're just… doing the wrong thing. They're hurting people because of something they want."

"The story to that is that the Fire Nation wants to spread their greatness with the rest of the world." Piandao explained. He took a sip of his tea and then continued. "I have never followed their beliefs, however. I have my own beliefs and my own ways. I do not judge others for following their own paths. But the Fire Nation's path is a cruel one that must be stopped." Sokka nodded completely and Piandao narrowed his eyes. "But I don't think the entire populace needs to suffer from this. They are being lied to just like the rest of the world. Their soldiers belief they are spreading their greatness by cleansing the heathens of the world that refuse to accept their offerings."

"'Spreading their greatness' is nothing but a lie." Sokka snapped. "All they're doing is killing and taking lands that belong to another country. How can they call that spreading their greatness? This is why I say they're evil and that there are no good Fire Nation people." Sokka stared in horror at Piandao. He had said it, but Piandao shrugged it off. "I'm sorry, Master. I didn't mean…"

"I understand, Sokka. I don't blame you for that. It's very hard to find one soldiers or citizen that is good and accepts what we're doing as wrong. But more to the point, we must continue your training." He stood up. "I told you that you were going to make your own sword and that you had a special material from outside that you wanted to use. Do you need help in retrieving it?"

Sokka blinked and then nodded. "Yes. My friends can help me get it. I'll be right back." Sokka and the Avatar gang got up and left without bothering to ask Lyra for help.

Zentrai turned to watch them leave and snorted. _"Where is Shin? We need to speak with him and probably warn him to not do anything insane to Sokka."_

"Sokka is expendable." Naruto said coldly. Piandao sighed explosively. "We have our orders. Our orders are to get Aang to the rendezvous point to end this war with the Fire Nation. If Sokka or any of the others slow us down, that's not our problem. Our orders didn't involve them." Naruto stood up and walked away before anyone could protest to this.

Lyra nodded. "We have our orders. As much as Naruto would probably like to admit that we need them, he's compelled to follow the orders he's given. He's the Rank One Assassin in combat abilities and has to follow all orders given to him regardless of how heartless they are. I know it pains him to do so, but we can't be slowed down." She chewed on her lower lip. "How much time do you need to train Sokka, Master Piandao? Can you get him fully trained so that he is combat ready with a sword before the Day of Black Sun?"

"Yes. But I'll need at least a week to train him nonstop. If you can simply stay for that amount of time I can have this done quicker."

"Not possible. We have to keep on moving. We're on a time table. We can slow our pace down so that Sokka could catch up, but after two weeks, we'll wash our hands of him."

"So you'll give me a week and a half to train him and send him on his way? That sounds fair. Can I trust that you'll also speak with my son so that he won't kill Sokka right when he gets here?"

"Of course." She smiled. "But make no mistake; Shin will kill him if he doesn't see what you see him. To be honest, I don't see what you see in him. We'll rest for one day and then leave in the morning. If the others don't come with us, they're your problem. The Avatar will come regardless. Now," she turned to Fat. He winced at her dangerous look in her eyes. "Where is my room? I wish to know where it is so that when I'm finished bathing I can get there with ease."

"Right this way, Ma'am." He gestured towards the door and looked back at Piandao. His old master was raising his glass as if he were a man fixing to get laid. Fat looked back at the retreating form of the one armed girl and sighed as Zentrai soon followed him under the same idea.

(-)

Azula was bored. That was a bad thing for sure. But she was bored. She wasn't being pampered. No one seemed to notice her. And if they did notice her, they didn't know who she was. That was a dishonor in her mind. Everyone should know who she was. She was a royalty.

The princess snorted in anger and glanced down at her body. She had a hot body, even with the strange markings that she now had. They had grown slightly and she couldn't and wouldn't cover them up on a day like this. No. Her curse seemed to have an exotic look to them. Even she liked the strange poison that now flooded her body and made her veins a visible. It had officially started to grow downwards and move around her stomach to her side. It was still spread out like a spiders' web, but when she wore a two-piece swimsuit it made it look like a tattoo of some sort. She hadn't missed the few glances it got and the way the boys stared at her chest.

But despite the looks she was still bored. She needed to do something and fast. It was unnerving to know that she, a Royal Princess, could be bored.

Mai was out of the question. She was with Zuko at the moment. Plus Mai had been acting very strange as of late. She wasn't nearly as moody, but Azula had started to notice the glares the Weapon Mistress was sending at her. Why she did this she didn't know. But whatever was making her glare at her had her wanting to stay away from her just for the time being. She felt like she was walking on thin ice because of what had happened between her father and her that she didn't want to do anything to jeopardize her standing at the moment.

Zuko was out of the question as well because he was with Mai. She also didn't feel like trying to manipulate him into doing what she wanted. And the idea of trying to be the perfect sister for those on the beach didn't sit well with her. If she wanted to manipulate him she'd use the information he had given her about him seeing their uncle. Sure she could have ruined him with that, but it would do her no good to just use it now. She'd gain nothing and the idea of ruining his life right now wasn't something she wanted to do… just yet anyways.

So that only left the ever illusive Ty Lee. She was thinking about seeing her and just trying to get her to do something but there had been her strange way of acting as of late that it made her believe that she was hiding something. But she was bored and Ty Lee was surrounded by a bunch of men that were trying to seduce her.

Deciding to ruin Ty Lee's day she stood up and marched towards the acrobat. She made sure to smile happily and not sadistically. She wanted the illusion that she was a friend and not a foe.

"Ty Lee," she cooed. The acrobat glanced up and her smile faded slightly. The Fire Nation princess noticed it and smiled mentally. "I was wondering if you wanted to come play a game with me."

"No." She turned back to one of the boys. "Can you get me a glass of water with lemon in it? Please?" She pouted and the boy melted. He quickly ran away to fetch her drink. Ty Lee pretended to not know that Azula was still there and showed some amount of shock that she still stood there. "Do you need something?"

Azula stared at her for a moment and looked at her as if she were some sort of bug that had never been seen before. Ty Lee didn't show that she relished the look of confusion and shock for her words. Having a backbone was a good thing, but she was still held in the fear of what she would or might do to her if she got angry.

Azula turned and stared at the boys. "How are you going to have fun with any of these boys when your boyfriend is as a demonic beast, Ty Lee? I thought you said he was very possessive."

The boys gulped and stared at her. The image they held was some big Fire Nation soldier that had a high rank and was very well known for never showing mercy. It got them to leave and Ty Lee was soon alone with the Fire Nation princess.

"You didn't have to do that."

"Yes I think I did, Ty Lee."

The acrobat stared at her in anger and then smiled. "Nice to see your _tattoo _is healing nicely." Azula stared her down and took a threatening step forward. Ty Lee snorted at her. "Go away. And don't go scaring off the boys again, _Fire Monster_."

"Enough," Azula snapped. "I'm not going to listen to you belittle me. If you want to belittle anyone, do it to Zuko. He needs it more than me. After all, he is a failure. He couldn't even kill the Avatar, let alone capture him. I had to do it."

"And _you_ made a Devil angry. You couldn't even kill him with two armies. So what does that say about you?" Azula took another step towards her. "I only came because Zuko invited me. So don't go threatening me with some stupid reason on why you can make me suffer and stay her. I'm already suffering more than what you could ever do to me. So don't even try, Fire Monster. Leave me alone." Ty Lee promptly turned away and began to examine her nails.

Azula stared at her. No one, not even her mother, had ever told her off. Sure her mother scolded her, but she turned around and did it again all the time. The only person that could control her was her father. But he let her do whatever she pleased. And Ty Lee was more or less telling her off, something she had never done before. It was almost as if she were mad at her about something.

"Go away." Ty Lee said coldly. "I just wanna be left alone on the beach to do as I please." Azula mulled that over and then smiled before walking away. Ty Lee stared at her retreating form and then growled. _She's going to try something. _

(-)

"You wanted to talk to us?"

Sokka shoveled more coal into the kiln and ran his arm over his head to wipe away the sweat that covered his forehead. He put in two more batches of coal via shovel before sticking it into the ground and facing his friends. For some reason he was a bit surprised to them, namely Aang and Katara since Toph didn't blinked unless she had to, blinking in confusion.

"I need you guys to go on ahead without me."

Sokka might have well just told them he didn't care about them or dropped an explosive powder on the ground. They blew up and started asking question after question so fast that he had to silence them with a raised hand. It worked, but not as well as he would have liked with Toph.

"You're leaving us?" Toph asked heatedly.

"No." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He hadn't pictured them getting this angry with him over this. "Listen, I need more time to master Swordsmanship and we have to keep moving at the same time. I can't train with Master Piandao on the road because he has to stay here. And Naruto and Zentrai aren't exactly the best of teachers, I think."

"So you're just going to stay until you've mastered your sword?" Katara snapped. She felt like hitting him. "Why do we have to go so you can stay? That's too dangerous. I forbid it."

"Katara, be practical about this. If you guys go on ahead with the others we can make good time. Naruto already agreed to move at a slower pace, one that should match up to how long Master Piandao wishes to train me. He said he'd even pay for a carriage to take me to North Chung-Ling so that we can all meet up there. He's already planned this out this far. I won't be in danger at all. And you guys can hurry along to the rendezvous point while I learn all I can about swordsmanship."

"But why can't we all just say together? Wouldn't that make things simpler?" Sokka shook his head and the young Avatar sighed. "Is it because we might end up in the way?"

Sokka nodded slowly. "Master Piandao told me that he would train me as hard as he could so that when the Day of Black Sun arrives I'm ready to fight with a sword and not use it like some terrified bandit. I won't be a master by any means, but I'll be that much tougher to kill." He stared at them and then sat down on the coals. "I know one sword won't make that much of a difference. But one partially trained swordsman might make all the difference. I need this, guys. I don't want to weigh you guys down. And don't say I don't."

"You do weigh us down." Toph told him.

Sokka dismissed her joke with a wave of his hand. "Can you guys just continue without me? Please. Consider this a chance to be away from me and my _crazy _schedule."

They didn't hide that they liked that idea. Sokka felt hurt but smiled.

"Alright," Katara agreed. "But we'll wait for you at the village."

"Naruto said he'd give me two weeks and nothing more. Once the two weeks are up he's moving on with or without me." He decided to leave out the part about them telling him he was expendable. They would have more of a reason to stay as a result.

"Alright, Sokka. If this is what you truly want, I won't stop you." Aang stood a little straight for a moment and then smiled. "But so you know, you don't weigh the team down." He patted him on the shoulder and then turned to leave, pausing only to say, "And try to learn as much as you can. Don't slack off like I do."

The others watched the Avatar go. Toph was smiling because she had more ways now to "train" Aang since he admitted to slacking off.

"I guess we should go get our things packed." Katara told him. "Good luck with your training and we wish you the best of luck."

"She wishes you the best of luck. Me, I just hope you don't cut yourself with it." Toph walked off whistling a happy tune. Katara followed a moment later, leaving the lone warrior to his thoughts.

(-)

Dark clouds hung overhead, blotting out the stars.

It was time to leave and although things hadn't gone as smoothly as Zuko might have liked, he did enjoy the time alone he got with Mai. The only thing that seemed out of place for him was that Azula had left them alone. He had expected her to boss him around and ask him to do things, or failing that she'd turn to Mai. But none of that happened. He was worried at the moment. Nothing ever went good around Azula. He had learned that a long time ago. Azula was a heartless woman that would kill him for a cookie most likely.

As much as they had talked about life, why he felt angry, and what he felt was wrong with him, he had a lingering feeling in his gut that told him something was amiss with Ty Lee. He couldn't place it. It was almost like she had slowly begun to unwind herself from them and keep them at bay with her growing cold nature. No. It wasn't a growing cold nature. Zuko knew what that was and Ty Lee didn't have that. It was more like she was depressed about something. He couldn't understand it and he couldn't understand her.

He huffed as he slung the last of his clothes into his bag. It felt good to pack his own clothes rather than to have some nameless servant do it. He had never bothered to thank many of them. Looking back on it now his mother had been the only one to ever thank them when they did something for them. They smiled genuinely around her and offered fake smiles around him. As real as they were he knew they were nothing but fake smiles meant to pleas him and the Royal Family. He felt disgusted by those fake smiles.

"You almost ready to go," Mai asked. She slinked up behind and wrapped her arms around his waist. He nodded slowly and felt Mai's body press against his back. "You saw it, didn't you? Ty Lee is changing."

"I noticed."

"I'm worried for her. She snapped at Azula."

"Good."

"I'm worried about her."

Zuko was silent for a moment before answering. "She's a tough woman. She can handle herself. Or… is she not what I think she is?" He said it slowly as if he were confused on the subject. He shook his head and turned around in her arms. They were pressed together. "Was she always like this or is just that she changed while I was away?"

Mai bit her lower lip and thought about it. Zuko wrapped his arms around her and hugged her closely as she answered. "She started to change after we left Ba Sing Se. Whatever happened in _there _is what changed her I think. She's probably just sad with what's been happening. Seeing the world for what it is now has probably changed her. She probably thought we were trying to spread our _greatness _to the world."

Zuko let her go but she held onto him. He closed his eyes as he thought about. He thought about the world mostly. He could never forget the hateful glares he got when he walked into foreign villages for supplies or while he was on the chase for the Avatar. They had messed up the world. It was unbalanced. That needed to be corrected. But that wouldn't happen. His father wanted power. His sister, should she get the throne, would just burn everything to the ground just to watch the world burn. He wondered what he'd do for a moment and then shook his head.

"I'm worried about her." Mai admitted again. "I think she wasn't prepared for the real world that we had to see. I mean, I saw back at Omashu, the city that we took over a few months back. So I was used to it when we started moving out. And since Ty Lee had originally been moving with the Fire Nation Circus, there's a chance that they moved around all the other villages as well and just went to the heavily secured Fire Nation villages to perform. So seeing the world the way it is must have also done her in like this."

Zuko nodded mutely. There were no words of comfort for the Weapon Mistress. He could do nothing but hold her and pray for her.

"Are you two coming or not?" Azula snapped. They parted and nodded slowly. "Good. The last thing I need is to stick around here any longer then what I'd like with no one to have fun with." She walked off with a smile.

(-)

In all Piandao's growing wisdom, letting Naruto leave with Sokka's friends was probably the stupidest thing he could have done. He did it for the best of reasons. He needed time to teach Sokka as much as he knew in the limited amount of time they had. He would train him for a week and give him half of a week to rest, knowing that when his son returned he would challenge him and wound him severely as a test to prove that he wasn't worthy of his teachings. Piandao knew that his son would act rash towards this choice, but what other options were there? Sokka was a good kid and a fine warrior. He just needed some adjustments and the right mindset.

"Again," he shouted.

Sokka snapped to his feet and began fighting Fat again.

Piandao sighed. He couldn't give Sokka a chance to rest for more than just sleeping or eating. He'd woken him up before the sun rose and already starting drilling in stances and breathing exercises to make him physically fit to do this. Most people believed that simply taking a sword and getting a master would make you a better swordsman. This was true, but it was also false. Piandao had learned the hard way that in order to be a master you need more than simple foot work and advanced skill with a blade. You needed to have the mentality of a tactical commander. You needed to understand your surroundings. You needed to know how to use the lay of the land to your advantage. And the most important thing was that you needed to be calm at all times.

He was drilling Sokka in two fashions. For the time he'd be here when they woke up until the sun rose to greet them, he'd train him in breathing exercises, sword stances, and by randomly trying to scare him. The last part wasn't for fun. He got Fat involved. Sokka needed to remain calm even during normal life. It would help him be a better swordsman. Seeing his comrades killed, watching the enemy charge him with a blooded weapon, or even watching as someone close to him might turn and try to kill him could all make the brain freeze and render you vulnerable. He wanted to make sure that never happened.

But there was a problem in doing this. Sokka was uneasy around him. He became fearful of every shadow he walked by. It seemed to have done more harm than good. That worried Piandao. With limited amount of time he had no other choice but to start cutting that back. Sokka didn't have the mentality to do that part. It just wasn't in him yet. He needed to wake up to the world to see it. Piandao knew that if he couldn't get him to wake up, his son most certainly could.

From sun up to noon they would train in different areas where Sokka would face Fat without knowing what the landscape was. He was fighting him in a bamboo forest at the moment. It was just thick enough to make fighting hard but just thin enough that Piandao could still watch them carefully. And for both their safeties they were using wooden swords as opposed to real ones with armor as well. Sokka was still going to get battered and bruised, but the armor would help him a little.

After noon Sokka spent his time with Piandao learning all the possible ways to counter any blow given to him by any other type of weapon. It was hard to believe that Piandao could use anything but a sword, but he managed nicely with other weapons like a staff or a hammer. Sokka wasn't getting that part down fast enough. By then he was usually tired and unfocused. Piandao knew that it was at that point that Sokka not only reached his limit for training but that if he was pushed any further he might break him. But he continued anyways.

Piandao had been a nice man and seen a lot of good people fight and die with a sword. In his mind, breaking a person during training was better than letting them get killed on the battlefield. He'd rather break someone than send them to their death after giving them his approval to use a sword and call them a Master. And as cruel as it was, Fat and Sokka both agreed that it was necessary.

Sokka collapsed under a fury of blows and gasped for air.

"On your feet," Fat ordered. Sokka hesitated but stabbed his wooden sword into the ground to help him stand. Fat was on him when both feet were firmly planted on the ground. He hit him twice in the head and kicked him once in the side, knocking him back down again. "Never take your eyes off the opponent. Try to never blink as well. Your life could end in the blink of an eye when the enemy is this close to you. Don't forget that." Sokka nodded as he rose. He made sure to keep eye contact with him this time around.

Piandao watched as Sokka began fighting anew. He was getting exhausted, but he continued to fight. Piandao wanted him to continue fighting until he couldn't move. When he couldn't move anymore he'd call it quits and let him eat and rest for thirty minutes. That was too much time in his eyes, but Sokka was proving to be a fast learner.

Sokka hit the ground once more and didn't move for five minutes. He groaned after six minutes and slowly began to get to his feet. Fat watched him carefully as the young teen wobbled three times before getting a firm stance. He hefted his wooden sword like it weighed as much as a mountain. He breathed heavily and Fat noticed that his eyes were unfocused.

Fat shook his head. "He's on his feet unconsciously. This is over now." Fat didn't take his eyes off the Warrior though. He was worried he'd pull something.

Sokka just stood there. Fat carefully approached him and stopped when Sokka's hands tightened on the wooden sword. He took one more step forward and then Sokka lashed out.

Fat jumped back and raised his own training sword and stared at the teen. Sokka became motionless again and Fat chewed on his lower lip. He wouldn't be able to get close to him to actually knock him out completely. Yes he was unconscious, but he was also still conscious to some extent. It was the training they were drilling into him that made him stand and fight. He was fighting on instincts now. He would swing the sword when his enemy got close. In this case, Fat couldn't get close to him without having to really fight and hurt him.

Sokka turned and swung his wooden sword. In two swift motions the sword was cut in half and Sokka was rendered completely unconscious. Piandao sheathed his sword before Sokka even hit the ground. The young Warrior hit hard, but was otherwise okay. Piandao was quick to kneel down beside him to ensure his survival. Expendable or not, he was his student and it was his duty to ensure he survived his training, broken or not.

"Take him to his room. He needs medical attention. We'll feed him when he awakens." Piandao turned and walked off. He had other issues to resolve at the moment.

Fat stared down at the teen for a moment before picking him up. _It's hard to believe that Master Piandao can still move like that. But then again, he is the man who once bested and entire castle on his own. _Fat hauled the sleeping teen to his room, undressed him and clothed him in his sleeping clothes and then departed. He left the door partially cracked so they would know when he was awake.

(-)

"I miss Sokka."

Lyra stared at Aang for a moment and then shrugged her shoulders.

"It's only been three days," Naruto told him. They continued to move at a steady pace across the barren landscape. "And besides, we need to find Shin before we get out of here. Otherwise he might just kill Sokka when he returns home."

"And who's to say this guy isn't already home?" Toph asked.

They stopped and looked down at the ground twenty feet away from them. A corpse was in the middle of the road. It was human and cut into three separate pieces.

"_That's how we know he's around here." _Zentrai moved to the body and looked it over. _"It's fresh. He's around here somewhere."_

"He killed this man! Why?" Zentrai kicked a broken sword that was resting in the man's grasp. Aang noticed it and winced. "Never mind," he whispered.

"Split up?" Katara asked.

"No. He'd attack you. He doesn't really know you all that well. He won't attack Toph though. Or us for that matter. He's an Assassin after all." Lyra told them.

The team was confused but accepted it.

Naruto took point and began moving in a quick low fashion. It seemed strange to them to watch him keep crouched as though he were in enemy territory. Well they were in enemy territory technically, but that wasn't the point. Naruto just looked a bit funny hunched over and running with his sword resting on his shoulder.

Aang stopped and glanced to his right. The others stopped as well and stared at him. Aang shifted uneasily as he peered into the fog that was slowly inclosing around them. He felt a shiver run through him and then warm as the fog completely covered them. It was thick enough that his friends who stood no more than four to eight feet away from him appeared like shadowy figures. They were misshapen as a result and he felt fear course through him. He stared at all six of them for a moment before Zentrai sprang into action.

"_Someone's here that I can't read!" _Five of the six shadowy figures rushed to Aang and circled around him.

Aang didn't realize what was wrong until Naruto, the last of the five shadowy figures arrived. There was another on in the fog just standing there.

Zentrai turned in the direction of the shadowy figure and threw two throwing knives at it. The figure faded away in the fog and vanished entirely. Naruto growled and considered using his power to blast away the fog. It would work. He'd done it once before. But that would be like painting a big red sign for the world to see.

The fog began to part and the team remained on edge until Toph gasped. "There's something here. It feels like…"

"_A gravesite," _Zentrai finished for her.

Toph felt like throwing up. She had never once considered what her way of seeing allowed her to see until now. With one step forward a vibration was sent out that bounced off anything and gave her an idea of what was ahead. What was ahead them was a pit. This pit was filled with hundreds of swords, broken armor, arrows, spears, shields, and other weapons. It was also filled with corpses. Hundreds of thousands of corpses, some buried, some not, some old, and some fresh. She wanted to throw up because she felt something wrong with the place. It was sickening to her and she honestly had no answer for it.

The others followed Naruto as he began to pass through the every growing field of swords. They moved in a single file line for a long time until Naruto suddenly stopped. Toph got a good look at the person with her way of seeing and blinked for a moment. A smile crossed her face along with the Assassins.

"Blindside," Toph exclaimed happily. She was happy to meet another Earthbender.

Blindside stood up sharply and presented his Sakabatō as a result. He sheathed it once he realized who was speaking to him and who was here now. He gave the team a glance and then looked back at the ground he had been kneeling at.

"I'm surprised you made it this far. I figured that with those kids around you'd get stopped in every village on the way and have the entire army of the Fire Nation on your heads. It's not easy traveling with immature brats that don't understand war, now is it?" The three Assassins had nothing to say on the matter. It was hard, but they managed. Blindside glanced at the others to gauge their reaction. They had none. "You seem to have laid down the law with them. Not a bad option, but clearly it has deprived them of any real enjoyment they have at the moment."

"Blindside, what are you doing here? I thought you were with the Assassins? For that matter, why are you even here to begin with? I thought only these three were allowed to help us." Aang pointed at his three guards and stared at him. "Please don't tell me you're here to protect me too. I don't know if I can stand being followed by another person."

"Put your mind at ease. I'm not here to follow you or help in the battle you will endure in a few weeks. I'm only here under the orders of my father, Piandao. If it wasn't for him, I'd be training Harut right now back at our village." He gave Naruto a sideways glance. "Being the Rank One Assassin for combat abilities has left you and the other two out of the current loop. Guarding the Avatar is your duty, and as such, you don't have to train someone like we do. The only reason I'm not training someone is because Rehka wants them to have field experience. I'm currently on leave you could say."

"Interesting as that is, can we get out of this place. It gives me the creeps." Toph announced.

"Afraid of ghosts?"

"I can't see like you guys." The blind girl waved a hand in front of her face with a smile. "I see with Earthbending. So if it floats or flies I can't see it."

"Who said these ghosts could fly?" Blindside gave her a grin and then turned his attention to Katara. "The aspect of death surrounds this place. It is, as some might say, a monument to evil. A great injustice was done here years ago. The dead are restless. They're souls have not moved on and as such they haunt these lands. I come to offer them salvation and pray for their release. Surely you of all people can understand the idea of a soul being attached to the land, never being allowed to leave, correct?"

"Someone is stuck here?" Aang stepped forward. Blindside raised a hand to stop him and the young Avatar stared at him. "If it's a soul that needs to be released, I'll help them."

"Help? Dear child, you can't help them. They are filled with hatred only. Betrayal runs deep in them. They were betrayed, used, and sent to their deaths. If you wish to help them, you must do more than speak with them. Words alone are not enough." The Rank Five Assassin glanced up at the top of the pit. "We must leave. At sundown they awaken to do battle again. I wish not to be here." He moved past them and stopped only to offer a warning. "Do not touch any of these weapons. They are cursed. If you touch them and take them, you will surely die."

The gang glanced at the other Assassins as they began following the Rank Five Assassin.

They traveled in silence for ten minutes before coming to a small forest. In the center of it was a small camp where Blindside had resided for the time being. With his food rations nearly gone it was clear he was fixing to return home.

The Rank Five Assassins offered what little food he had and helped the team form their own tents for sleeping. Sokka had gone out to gather some stick for kindling and soon a large fire was going. Rai and Shibaru had slinked off to find some food, mostly for themselves, and to ensure the place was secure. It paid to have a pet that could actually do its job and fend for itself.

"So why do you come all the way out here?" Aang asked finally.

Blindside gave him a sideways glance before speaking. "I come to this spot to pray for their release. They have been bound to this land for some amount of time now. They deserve to pass on." He reached into one of his bags and produced an amulet. "This was one of the many treasures that were created in this land before it was destroyed by the Fire Nation. It is the last of its type and is worth more than your head or ancient knowledge, Aang." He dangled it in front of the teen.

It was a sky blue rock of some kind with a hole it and a string through it, giving it the necklace form. The rock was curved like it was part of the Yin-Yang symbol. It seemed to be in good condition.

Shin pocketed it and continued. "The stuff they made wasn't very sot after until their demise. It was only after some Fire Nation citizens went digging through the rubble did they realize what sort of treasures they had. A lot of the stuff they had made was jewelry, clothing, and weapons. Among all of these they had created a perfect staff that killed any man who tried to use it for his own ends. The staff was made from refined iron and steel with a hammer on one end and a seven needle blade point forming the star at the other end. The blades were made from ground up diamonds and steel. The weapon itself wasn't dangerous. It was the style that was used with it. It's called the Seven Stance of Wu Shu."

"I've heard of that." Katara cut in. "It's mostly taken by women though. They use it for protection and nothing more."

The Rank Five Assassin nodded. "Yes. It is said that no one can counter it and it is nimble enough to break through all defenses. But I suppose that part is also just a legend. All defenses can be broken. Nothing is impenetrable. Nothing lasts forever." He reached over to the whistling tea pot and poured himself a cup of tea. "You're more than welcome to have some."

He took a sip of his drink and gave a warning glare to Naruto when the teen looked in a different direction.

"But I suppose you didn't seek me out to have tea or brush up on Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom history. So what is it that you want?"

"We want you to not kill Sokka when you return home." Katara answered.

Blindside narrowed his eyes on the three Assassins. "Father took someone under his wing?" He sat his cup down and sighed. "I should have known that was one of the reasons you'd seek me out. Our last report on you guys had seven people traveling together." Appa and Momo started chattering because of this. "Animals are not included in my numbers. You are merely food should starvation begin to set in, and therefore, not a number." They stopped chattering and quieted down. "I will deal with him in due time. Now for the other reason you're here. I take it you're here because of the changes that Rehka made."

The mute nodded swiftly and smiled.

Blindside took a deep breath before beginning. "All Master Assassins are hereby ordered to take at least two students for training. The Top Ten Assassins Ten through Four are to take at least one apprentice or an entire team of three under their wing. All Assassins are hereby ordered to stay closer to the village unless ordered otherwise by the higher-ups. All Assassins are to now submit a fully detailed review on all missions they take. All Assassins are hereby ordered to take a mental evaluation after every mission. All Assassins are ordered to take out any high ranking Fire Nation target should they be near one. Failure to comply with these changes will result in the immediate death and or imprisonment for treason." Blindside stared at them. "You three aren't under these rules because you are protecting the Avatar. Your duty is to protect him, nothing more. If someone were to mess with him, kill them. We're not taking any chances. But we have to follow these rules to the letter. The only acceptation is me right now because of father. Rehka doesn't want to risk an open conflict with Piandao since he not only makes their weapons but also has the political power to screw you guys over."

The group was quiet for a moment as they digested that.

For the Assassins it was proof that things were getting seriously. This was just barely under a marital law for them. Only once had the Assassins been put under martial law, but it was for their safety, not to destroy them and take away their true rights.

For Aang and the others it was just another reason to end the war and proof that the Assassins weren't going to help them in the fighting. Naruto, Zentrai, and Lyra would be with them, but they would be limited and continue to help Aang and Aang only. That meant that they wouldn't be on the front lines.

"_No other changes?" _Blindside shook his head. _"Alright. We'd like for you to not kill Sokka since he's training with Master Piandao. He said he'd deal with you when you got there because he figured that you'd try something anyways. If that is the case, then our orders stand as well. You cannot, under any circumstances, kill Sokka."_

"I do not understand. Is he not expendable?"

"Of course he not! How could you say something like that?" Katara screamed. "He's my brother and a member of our team! He's not expendable!"

"On the contrary, their orders state that they are to protect the Avatar at all costs. That means that they are not ordered to protect you for any reason. If you get captured or are wounded and will drag them down, you will be left to die or be dealt with accordingly to prevent a leak in what you are setting out to do. You are all expendable say for the Avatar himself." Shin explained carefully.

"How can you say we're expendable when we're the ones training him in the ways of our bending?" Toph had a smile on her face when asked him that question.

"A new teacher can easily be proved," Lyra answered swiftly. Aang stared at her with an open mouth. "For Earthbending you need someone who listens to before attacking. Waterbending is easier. We can provide one in an instant. You are all still expandable. And for the record, so are we. Our lives will be for nothing if the Avatar dies. So long as he lives, even at the cost of our lives, there is still hope in the world. So don't feel like we're trying to disrespect you when the same applies to us as well."

An uneasy silence fell over the camp that night as Blindside explained some of the other changes to the other three Assassins, leaving Aang, Katara, and Toph out the loop. It wasn't their business to understand the workings of the Assassins. They understood that the Assassins lived by the general idea that allies one day could be enemies the next. It was a hard lesson for them to understand, but in reality the Assassins had no allies. All they had was each other, but even then they weren't allies.

(-)

Sokka awoke with a start and swung once before realizing he was in a bed. He remembered his training with Fat but nothing else after going down.

"You're awake already." Sokka turned and stared at Piandao. He looked like a demon with the light of his candle shinning in his eyes and the darkness covering the rest of him. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd wake up at all. It's good to know I didn't hurt you too bad."

Sokka rubbed the back of his neck just below the base of his skull. It did hurt a little.

"Do you remember what happened to you?"

"I was training with Fat while you watched, Master Piandao." Sokka stopped and glanced at the candle. "Why? Did something happen?"

"Sokka, you've been out for most of a day now. You missed a lot of training because of this."

"I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for." Piandao was hesitating about something. "Sokka, can I ask you a personal question?" The young Warrior nodded. "Why did you want to learn the art of swordsmanship? You have talent in the area, but given your background there is no real reasoning for it. Your family is not one to use a sword. So why did you wish to take up a sword?"

"I wanted to be as good as my friends. I wanted to help them beat the Fire Nation."

"I see." Piandao got quiet again. "Sokka, I'm going to tell you something about the way I've trained people. And I want you to keep an open mind and not shut this out." Sokka nodded carefully. Piandao was serious. That scared him. "I once fought for my people a long time ago. Still to this day I fight for them, but in a different method that I won't explain. However, that said, I do still serve my people to the best of my abilities and those around me. The fact that I took my son, an Earth Kingdom born child, is proof that I am more than what I seem. I have seen hundreds of people come to me for training, but I have refused them all say for my son. I trained him because he fought for the same ideals I do. I've trained you because you have self-doubt and are unsure of yourself. You lack a path."

"Just because you took up one Earth Kingdom child, that doesn't exactly make you a saint. And training only him and me means nothing to me. I don't understand what you're getting at."

The old master nodded truthfully. Blunt as it was, it did summarize him quiet well.

"I never took him in because I wanted to try and find peace in my actions prior to finding him and the light of day. I had already begun to awaken before meeting him. I saw the world in a different manner than the troops around me. They saw the world as some alien world where everything was a threat. I saw beauty and truth and wisdom in the world. They burned it down. I tried to save it. My actions nearly cost me my life when I spared a village. I couldn't bring myself to destroy it. And it was in this moment I met my son. But that is for a later date. What I want to know from you is why you fight."

Sokka thought about it for a moment. There were a lot of reasons that he fought. Some were obvious but stupid. Others were deep and painful. He didn't want to answer the question, but he didn't want to not answer is either.

"I fight to destroy the Fire Nation." Piandao's eyes lowered slightly. "I want to destroy the Fire Nation for what they've done. They took away my mother and destroyed our family. Only recently did I get to see my dad after so long. It's not fair for what the Fire Nation has done. They have to be stopped."

"So you're fighting for revenge?"

"Yes… No… I don't know why I'm fighting I guess."

Sokka hung his head in shame for not having a real answer.

Piandao sighed. "You have lost your way. I cannot train you unless you find a reason to fight, Sokka. It is impossible."

"I'm fighting for my friends."

"Only your friends?" Sokka kept his mouth shut. "There is more to life and fighting then just doing it for your friends. They way of the sword is more than just stabbing and slicing your enemies. It is about protecting the innocent and destroying the guilty. What if your friends turned on you? Would you point your blade at them?" Sokka shook his head. "Without being able to sacrifice your emotions and attachments you will never become a true swordsman, Sokka."

"So I have to give up what makes me… me? Is that what you're saying?"

"No. I am merely saying that you have lost your way. I want to help you find it again. We have been pushing you very hard, Sokka. I think you need to remember and learn what it is that a swordsman fights for. It is what I fight for." Piandao retrieved Sokka's blade and handed it to him. "Return at nightfall. Give me your answer for whom you fight for. If you give me an answer I like, I'll continue to train you."

Piandao turned and left without another word.

Sokka was left confused and stared down at his sword. He already knew more than what he had ever thought he could learn. He could just leave and never return right now and call himself a master. He decided to stay for more teachings. So he got dressed and began his march into town.

(-)

Piandao stood next to the window as he watched Sokka go. He knew what the boy was going to do; he just hoped that he found an answer to what it was that he needed to fight for. Fighting without a purpose was a terrible thing. If you fought for a purpose other than yourself you were strong. If you fought solely for yourself you were weak. Piandao had hopes that Sokka would come across the right answer to what he was seeking. For him, fighting was more than just slaying his enemies; it was about preserving the balance and protecting the world, not just his Nation.

_I hope you find that, Sokka. I'm training you to do more than end the war. I'm training you to be a swordsman for the people and the world. Not just for your friends and Water Tribe. _

The old master turned and looked to Fat. The butler looked perplexed but seemed to understand what was going on. "Prepare some bandages. No doubt my son will arrive soon." Fat left the old man. Piandao turned back to the window and began glancing around for his son. _Where are you now, Shin? _

(-)

The first thing Ty Lee did when she got home was throw herself on her bed. The second thing she did was strip off her robes. They annoyed her.

Naked now, she moved to the bath with a smaller robe to cover her modesty as she prepared a bath. She didn't have servants like the rest of her family or friends. Instead she had thrown them away in a manner of speaking. They were great to have around, but with her ability to see auras it was just an annoying thing. She could tell their smiles weren't real. She could tell that they're happy tone was forced. She could tell that they were afraid of her. She didn't want that. So upon her return home after traveling with Azula she promptly did away with them.

When the bath was ready she dropped her robe and sank all the way in. It washed away the sea salt smell and then grim from the sweat she received while sunbathing, along with the sand that just had to stick in places she didn't know she had.

Ty Lee brought her nose to the very tip of the water and began to breath. It didn't enter, but the steam was enough to clear her mind.

She was confused. She had snapped at Azula. She didn't know why she did it. For the life of her she had no idea on why she did it. She was always cheerful and happy. Looking back on her life she couldn't think of a single time she had snapped at anyone. It was confusing her. It wasn't like her to be angry. It did bad things to her aura and her skin.

Ty Lee knew she had more problems than just this at the moment. Her fears were placed on Azula. She didn't know what Azula would do to her. She had to be planning something. It was hard to believe that Azula had let her get away with that when she did. So Azula had to be planning something.

_But what can I do to keep it from happening? _She hugged her knees to her chest and rested her head against her knees. She wanted to cry in fear of what might happen. No one but Naruto and Zentrai ever dared to order her around without proper orders and lived to tell the tale. What could she do against someone that could easily beat her?

Ty Lee was aware that she could confide in someone about this. If word got out that she, a lower class of the higher ranking families, had screamed at Azula and told her off then the fallout would be devastation. She could go to Mai, but Mai would probably tell her to not worry about it. She couldn't go to Zuko either. He'd turn around and demand and answer for her from Azula. There was no other option for her but to sit and wait for whatever happened.

_Or I could simply leave the Fire Nation. _She thought about that for a moment then sank deeper into the water and began to clean herself.

(-)

"There are ruins of the village that once occupied the pace between here and Fire Fountain City. If you go there I would advise that you look without taking anything."

Blindside left them early in the morning after telling them that. Aang seemed quite determined to see this place. He avoided giving a verbal reply to why he wanted to go there, but Zentrai knew and decided for once to keep silent on the matter. This was Aang's fight no matter how they all looked at it. He alone had to deal with the Fire Lord to set things right. So if they took a small detour, who were they to stop him?

They traveled in silence stopping only to eat and take potty breaks. Naruto laughed when he heard Katara call it that. Toph, probably because of her tomboyish nature, declared that she had to take a piss not five seconds later and walked off into the woods. Naruto found it funny to see two ways of describing such a thing. He hadn't heard either in a long time. He normally just said he had to take a leak. Obviously his time with Zentrai only had damaged him in that area.

After two days of traveling they finally reached the village. It was larger then what they had all though it would be. Reading about it in a history book would have done very little. Most people couldn't understand a number or what it meant until you saw it in person. It was like looking at a photo back home where Naruto was from. You could look at a photo and think the person was tall or short or fat or thin and then met them in person and learn that they were on or the other. Seeing a settlement that was burned nearly to the ground that stretched for two kilometers was one such occasion.

The walls that had been heavily fortified were now decayed with aging. They were weather beaten and on the verge of collapsing. Mountains were not eternal. Neither was stone forged by man to build a wall. Even steel was not immortal to time. Time could consume everything, just like it consumed the village.

Say for the walls, nothing really stood inside the place. A few buildings here and there. A home here and there. There wasn't much of it. What did remain intact was a shrine to a Spirit. Rai was baffled by it, but decided to leave it be. No point in bringing up such a pointless thing.

The village was littered with debris from a battle fought so long ago that the earth had only now began to cover the wounds it had left it with. Skeletons clad in armor and civilian clothing covered the streets. No dead were buried. They were left to the carrions of the world. It was a horrible sight to them.

"I wanna check out the place alone." Aang declared. Naruto paused and nodded. Toph twitched when she felt the extra presence of one of his clones. He wouldn't let Aang go in alone no matter what. "Thanks for understanding." Aang didn't know the clone tailed him into the heart of the village where more of the structures stood.

The others watched him go and then returned to the wall and waited for him.

After ten minutes of silence Toph spoke up. "Do you think Sokka is okay?"

"_Probably not." _She deflated with Katara upon hearing that. _"Blindside is pretty ruthless when he feels threatened. Piandao is everything to him. He gave him a purpose. He gave him a home and a life. He owes that man more than he can offer. But his problem is that he doesn't like others trying to take his fathers' teachings and use them for unjustified means."_

"You make that sound as though he's a pacifist." Katara declared.

"_No. Blindside is a strange one. He would rather not kill, but he won't hesitate to kill anyone that aims their blades at his only pride. Very seldom is he sent out to deal with missions and when he does he is the most fearsome of us all at times. He once laid waste to an entire village in a single night. Not an easy feat."_

"But the people he killed were citizens making armor and weapons for the Fire Nation." Lyra pointed out. Katara balled her hands into fists. "It wasn't a senseless killing, Katara. We had our orders and they were making weapons for the Fire Nation right at a neighboring village. With that factory out of the way they had to travel three times the distance to get their supplies that they needed. As much as I hate to say it, what we do is wrong but we do it for the right reasons. I myself have laid waste to villages that produced crops for the Fire Nation close to places that they were attacking. They were all manned by simple citizens."

"Still doesn't seem right."

"No, it doesn't." Naruto spoke up. "But saving lives and taking lives is something we do in war."

The team fell into an uneasy silence as they waited for Aang to return. Minutes turned into hours and soon the teens were worried for him. Naruto sent in another clone to check on them. His first clone was still alive because he hadn't gotten any memories as of yet.

When his clone reached the other clone they talked for a moment and the older clone decided to call it quits. With its destruction Naruto learned that Aang was in a shrine and still okay. He seemed to be praying or making an attempt to enter the Avatar Stare. The clone wasn't sure on what he was doing.

When the sun finally sank beneath the trees Aang returned. He seemed confused by something and was bold enough to demand that they stay for the night. Naruto offered no argument, though Zentrai did have a few things to say when he learned that Aang's only reason in staying in the place as long as he did was the stall for time so Sokka had a better chance of meeting up with them.

They camped next to the village walls. Blindside had warned them once that the place, and the pit where the swords were located, was haunted and entering without the dead's permission would result in their deaths. So they slept outside with a small campfire to cook their food. Shibaru and Rai had gone and killed a dozen animals while Zentrai and Sokka had gone fishing hours before they set up camp.

Fish and rice is what they ate and Naruto was reluctant to admit that things were going downhill in his eyes. He just hoped that Sokka could live long enough to return to them.

(-)

_I learned something, _Sokka admitted to himself. He wondered if he was actually lying to himself now or just trying to find an answer in his own questions that had started to plague him.

Piandao took him in and continued to train him without receiving an answer. Sokka didn't care. He knew his Master wanted an answer, but also understood how new he was to the world. He was hardened, but not as hardened as Piandao in the ways of the world or the cruelty of war. He barely understood the world outside of what he saw. The way of the sword was no better either. It was complex and he failed to understand the deeper meaning the Piandao was trying to bestow upon him.

Sokka tried to put his growing worries about the answer he couldn't find by training. He isolated himself in his training. Piandao found him multiple times going through stances that they had already learned and began to fear for him. Sokka knew he was worried for him. He was worried for the answer he couldn't offer him. He had no idea. He was only a teen that had been thrust into a world of war at an early age. He could have stayed home, been a bigger help to his people, but he would have never gotten to come and see the world. He wouldn't be learning how to use a sword.

He sat in silence as he stared down at the village beneath him in wonder. He stared at it for minutes that dragged into hours and before long it was time for lunch. He ate in silence and Piandao left alone to his thoughts for most of the day until he had decided to take him up again. They practiced for hours without a word spoken. The occasional grunt escaped Sokka. He was focused on his training and the answer he felt that he _had _to give him. He should have expected the answer to be simple, but he felt like there was a double meaning to it.

Three days passed with little ease before Sokka was finally asked for the answer he had found.

"I have no answer." He admitted.

Piandao shrugged indifferently and then smiled. "You're young, Sokka. Perhaps I asked too much of you. Let's continue your training."

They trained for the rest of the day with no issues. Sokka had partially mastered their areas and learned to lure Fat into traps. Fat was predictable and that had been his downfall. He hardly ever had a reason to pick up a sword since his Master never really trained anyone.

It wasn't until the fourth day of his return did something happened that shocked him.

He was attacked in his room that he was using. He felt the presence of the person, like they had been watching him. It woke him up and before he could take in his surroundings he was on the move. The intruder had kicked him out of the window and into the courtyard. He beat him to the bamboo forest before Sokka gained enough wits to try and identify his attacker.

He didn't recognize him right away, but he understood he was using two strange swords. One was a sword with the blade on the wrong side. The other was more complex. It was similar to the sword with the blade on the wrong side, but it also sported two bladed edges like Sokka's Jian sword, but it sported a curve that marked it as a Samurai styled sword still. Its guard was a simple X shaped style one with a gold outlying and a black inner layer. The handle was wrapped in a black fabric and the blade was a mixed between white and black.

Sokka brought his own sword to bear and blocked the black and white sword. He strained from the force behind it and marveled at the duel sword user's strength.

He pushed Sokka back and forced him into the forest before vanishing in the darkness. Sokka looked around before cold steel was at his throat. He gasped. He only lost sight of his attacker for a moment. Was it really long enough to close their distance and get behind him without detection so easily?

"Stand down, Shin." Piandao's voice cut through the darkness and Sokka felt a cold shudder run through him. Piandao approached with his sword in his hands. He seemed ready for a fight. "I will not have you kill my new student, Shin. So stand down."

Sokka glanced back. Shin… He recognized him now. Despite having not seen him since Ba Sing Se before it fell, he recognized him, but his eyes seemed different. Before he had seen them with a, calm and cool reflection that made him seem like an easy guy. Now they were filled with hatred and pain, as if he intended for Sokka to inherit it.

Shin pulled back, flicked his swords and sheathed them. Sokka had noticed it right off the bat, but his duel bladed sword was just an inch longer than his Sakabatō. And he kept them belted on the same side. Unsheathing both would prove difficult if not deadly. Even if he was an Assassin it was insane for him to have them kept in that fashion.

"Sokka, this is my son, Shin." Piandao waited for an outburst. None came from the Water Tribe Warrior. "He's recently returned home to help me with my work. He may seem rough around the edges but he is very powerful." Sokka kept quiet and merely nodded. "Off to bed with you. We will start first thing in the morning when the sun comes up." Sokka ran off without protest and disappeared in the night. Piandao waited two extra minutes before speaking. "That was uncalled for."

"I wanted to see how great he is. He's nothing special."

"He is the first student I have taken up since Tai. And you murdered Tai."

Shin shrugged with an offered glare. "You knew as well as I did that he was only learning from you to get revenge for his family. I merely showed him what revenge does to people."

"I know." Piandao receded from the argument and changed the topic. "Sokka's time is almost up. He has only a few more days of training before he must depart." He eyed his adopted son for a moment before continuing. "I want to test him, but I want you to find it appeasing. I know that if I fight him you'd call it a conflict of interests. I wanted him trained and well suited for what may lay ahead of him. You want him dead and obviously want to evaluate his worthiness to continue his training with me."

"So you're going to let me do the testing then?" With some hesitation his adopted father nodded. "Very well."

"But you will not use your twin swords." The Rank Five Assassin narrowed his eyes. "You are too powerful for him to face alone. He doesn't have the skills to beat you. Even if I gave you a wooden sword, which I will, you could still kill him with it. I know how deadly you are. You defeated Tai with your Sakabatō. And you did it without resorting to the bladed side of it. That says more about you than you are willing to admit to. So you will use wooden training swords. He will wear the training armor for his protection."

"You favor him?"

"No. I see greatness in him."

"An heir to your teachings?"

Piandao turned his head slightly. It was the only answer he offered.

"Very well, father. I will test him in the morning."

"Noon." Shin stared at the older master. "You will commence your test after noon. I want to give him the best chance for _survival _that he can get. I see much in him. With so little time he doesn't have the skills to best you. Words of encouragement will do him as well as his sword."

Shin had nothing to say to that. Words alone could not save Sokka from him. Piandao knew that. And a fight with him would only end in one way.

Shin stood a little straighter before he turned and walked off. "I do not see what you see in him, father. But I will not kill him. You have my word." With that he vanished.

Piandao waited for a few seconds before smiling. "Get as many bandages and medicine you need from the village, Fat. Things will be rough tomorrow." Piandao didn't look to see if Fat had bowed before leaving. His only concern was whether Sokka could survive the beating he was fixing to undertake. He only hoped that his words would be understood in the end.

(-)

Rai glanced up and sniffed the air before rising and growling. Shibaru awoke at the sound of her mate growling and took a tentative sniff before doing the same. Zentrai was the first among the Assassins to awaken and quickly read their minds. What they saw that he could not had no real shape in the fog. He remained on the ground under his covers in his sleeping bag but with one eye opened. Rai and Shibaru would not let anything harm the Avatar.

Aang was quick snap awake and sat up straight. Zentrai quickly dove into his mind. He wanted to know what was out there without alerting anyone. But what Aang saw had him reeling in disgust and fear. It wasn't human in any sense of the world. It was a hideous demon from which no form could be taken. It had a humanoid shape to it, but it sported four onyx colored eyes that pierced even the darkness. Hellish armor that was blacker than the night sky covered its form, giving the humanoid shape, but the wings, horns, claws, and two toed feet, threw it all off. In one hand it held a monstrous sword with an eye in the center of it that's gaze snapped to Aang alone.

For a moment Aang was left blinking in terror before it marched towards him.

Rai got to his feet and threw himself at the figure. He burst through it and it pretended to not know what had just happened as it marched straight for the Avatar. Aang got to his feet. With all the vibrations going off now, Toph was awake. The others soon followed because if she freaked, or gave them a warning of any kind, they were up and alerted.

The strange figure continued its march until Shibaru and Rai stood in its path. It stopped, perplexed, and, as if thinking better of its situation, stopped. Aang stared at it. The eyes were completely inhuman. But hadn't Hei Bai been a monster when he was angry over his forest being destroyed? So maybe this thing here was once a normal person that had felt great pain and stayed behind to get vengeance.

"Twinkle Toes, what's up?" Toph got into her fighting stance. She couldn't feel anything else, but everyone was up and they wanted answers.

The thing stopped, reconsidered its actions and began to back up.

Aang snapped a hand out to it and took two steps. A thick fog rolled in and obscured it from view just long enough of for it to vanish before his eyes. When the fog cleared nothing remained of the creatures and after explaining what he saw, Naruto confirmed that what he saw was something they couldn't, leading Aang to believe it was a Spirit. Zentrai wasn't so sure but decided that it was best to be avoided.

"No," Aang decided. "I want to know what it wants. It came to me. It wanted to speak with me. I know it did."

"Are you sure?" Aang nodded and the one armed bender sighed. She exchanged a quick glance with her friends before turning back to Aang. "The sun is almost up. We'll stay one more night and then depart in the morning. You have until then to find it and speak with it. If it tails us you can chat with it then." She shivered and went to start cooking.

Aang wondered about it for a moment and then decided to head back into the village. It seemed to want in the village if at anything.

(-)

"When you face him you must go at him with the intent to kill." Sokka nodded mutely as he was lead through the dark passages beneath the castle and the village. He wondered if the villagers knew of it. "My son doesn't harbor any ill intent towards you other than that he thinks you are unworthy to learn my still of swordsmanship. I disagree, but we very seldom agree on anything these days. He sees the world for the darkness it has. I see the world for the light is has."

"So you have polar opposites to how you view the world. Big deal," Sokka said.

"As true as that is, he thinks you are only learning from me for revenge. I disagree." Piandao stared at his young pupil to gauge his reaction. Sokka didn't seem startled by his words. "You can't beat him, Sokka. You can only endure."

"You make that sound like you're throwing me away."

"Forgive me, Sokka, but my son has a point. If I fight you it would be a conflict of interests. If you fought Fat there is no guarantee that you'll not beat him easily. You've already learned how to trick him. That's more than enough of a reason for you to fight my son."

"But you said I can't beat him."

"You can't beat him. You can only endure, Sokka. What he's going to test you on is your skill, but he will also be testing your courage to continually face him in combat. He will knock you down and you will have to get back up." Piandao stopped talking and then sighed. He breathed deeply as they approached the doors that were still a hundred feet away. "Sokka, in order to stand even a remote chance against him you must have a courage that runs as deep as despair."

Sokka stared at his Master for a moment before sighing. That made no sense to him.

Piandao stopped at the doors and waited for Sokka. The young Warrior puffed out his chest in an act to appear ready. He was far from it. Piandao couldn't blame him. Words alone were not enough. His son was right. Sokka needed more than just words. He needed a motivation. Lacking a motivation meant he'd have no idea on what he was fighting for. No doubt his son would force one into him to see his true potential before breaking him apart.

They shoved the doors open and stepped into utter darkness. The doors groaned from their age and years spent closed before they were shut again. A hum sounded through the darkness and green lights illuminated the place for them. The arena floor was the strangest thing he had seen. It was decorated with trees that thrived in darkness or from the small source of light above. A stream flowed through it, defying gravity it seemed and a waterfall that was more of a small stream that fed it. Grass covered most of the arena floor with the aid of large boulders that were left scattered or forming strange architectural structures that showed signs of an Earthbender at work.

Sokka was motioned to the arena platform while Piandao and Fat moved to a private book located above the arena. They had a near perfect view of the place.

Sokka stood on the soft grass and took in the place before spotting Shin. Shin was meditating near the stream with his eyes closed. At his feet were two wooden swords. Sokka wondered why Shin had been given two wooden swords to use while he got his real sword. Sure Sokka was wearing armor and felt safe against a wooden sword, but his were different. They had no guard to them and they looked far more solid than the ones he had trained with.

"I'm here."

"I heard your footsteps before you opened the door, Sokka. I know." Blindside rose to his feet.

Sokka felt his world go dark. Blindside was staring at him with cold cruel eyes. No more did he seem like the man that could be warm and kind. Sokka felt as though his very life was on the line now. He had self-doubt as Shin picked up his weapons. Piandao hadn't just given him words to chew on; he gave him facts about his son. Things that scared even him.

Shin was the Fire Nation's second best Swordsman. He had been to all manner of tournaments and bested everyone without fault. Some said he was a God among men. He beat everyone that was thrown at him with cold efficiently. It was how he earned the name Shin, the Shadow Blade and his Assassin name Blindside. Piandao even went on to say that he felt he no longer could best his son in combat that he was no above him in both power and status. Whether that was true or not had never been tested and it scared Sokka to know that Shin, the Assassin before him, was strong enough and powerful enough to have more backing than even Piandao.

Sokka took up a fighting stance just as Shin gripped both of his weapons. In a flash, Shin crossed the great distance between them in a few pumping strides. Sokka wasn't ready for him and was forced back. Shin advanced and swung with his left hand. The younger Warrior raised his sword to block it. Pain tore through his side left side and he felt the sharp crack of Shin's other weapon that lay in his right hand. He had taken his eyes off it and focused on the immediate one in his left hand. Sokka tried to ignore the throbbing pain as Shin pushed through and knocked him down.

Sokka slumped sideways and staggered two steps before turning to lash out. He swung. Shin charged him during his swing and got under it. Sokka glanced down in awe. Shin was faster than what he thought and was easily inside his own guard before he had a chance to put some distance between them. Two blows to the side from both wooden swords left Sokka writhing in pain. He felt a burning sensation and fought back tears. Shin was relentless. He never gave Sokka a chance to defend himself. He hammered away on him. His blows felt like two at a time.

Sokka got his bearings after the fourth blow and swung. Blindside was out of his way as soon as he saw the arm raise. Sokka swung anyways.

Shin stopped his relentless barrage of attacks and sized Sokka up again. Something was irking him and he wanted to nip it in the bud right now.

"You're not fighting are your truest potential." Sokka stared at him. His face became a mask as best he could make it. Shin's eyes hardened. "You're not fighting with all you have. Fight with all your power, Sokka, or I will kill you without a second thought." Sokka remained quiet. Shin closed his eyes. The distance between them was not something Sokka could cross fast enough so he cared very little for Sokka being a threat. "Why are you bothering to learn how to fight if you won't fight with all you have? Are you afraid?"

"No."

"Then fight with all your strength, Sokka. This isn't a battle to determine just whether or not you will continue training with my father. This is a battle for your very own life." He paused and then added: "I do not see what my father sees in you, Sokka. You are a disappointment to me. I expected more from the man my father personally wanted to train with his speech he gave. You said you weren't sure if you were worthy or not. From my perspective, you are not even worthy to have that sword."

Sokka gripped the hilt tighter for a moment. Self-doubt was sinking in again. He knew that he wasn't fighting at his strongest right now. What good would it do him? He couldn't win in a fight against him. Sokka had already accepted defeat. Did he have to endure this if it could be avoided? He knew he couldn't, but Piandao seemed determined to make them fight. Or perhaps it was Shin that really wanted to fight him? Sokka didn't know nor care. He had to focus on living through this. Surrendering was clearly not an option, but he could fake a defeat couldn't he? That was in the realm of possibilities.

"What are you fighting for?" Sokka was yanked from his thoughts. Shin had closed the distance in his moment of soul searching. Sokka's sword lashed out like a snake tongue but missed its target. Shin was in his opening in a flash and smashed his weapon into the chest plat Sokka wore. It cracked under the pressure and forced Sokka back. Shin shook his head in disappointment. "You aren't giving this your all. You need motivation." He reached into his pocket and withdrew a blue necklace. Sokka instantly realized what it was. "I'll kill your friends if you don't take this seriously. And I'll break you apart but keep you alive just so you can watch as I snuff out your friends and then your tribe at the South Pole."

Shin turned and started walking away.

"You expect me to believe that that's my sister's necklace, don't you?" The Rank Five Assassin stopped and looked over his shoulder as if bored by the very notion of Sokka now wanting to fight him serious. Sokka raised his sword threateningly and growled at him. "I won't let you touch my sister."

Shin turned and flashed him a smile. "Then I suppose I have no need of this either." His hand dug into his pocket once. He stashed the necklace and pulled out Toph's hairband. Sokka gasped in total awe. He couldn't steal her things yet Blindside had. What did that truly say about the man? "Do you intend to fight me seriously now? Or do I have to send my little pet here with a message to Naruto that he has been ordered by a higher member from a group that once birthed the Assassins to kill them?" Shin thumb jabbed in the direction of a four legged animal that was nestled in the darkness.

Sokka was in mental lock. He couldn't think. Blindside was basically telling him that he had a choice of taking this seriously now or he'd destroy his world and make him watch and live through it.

The teen shook his head in anger and charged blindly.

Shin was on him before he took his fourth step. Sokka's anger was replaced by fear. The distance had been great and Shin traveled it in the blink of an eye it seemed.

Shin didn't stop once he was near Sokka. He ran past him, dropping him in one go. Sokka gasped in shock and pain as he felt his entire left side heat up and then go numb. He dropped to his knees and screamed for an eternity before he felt a foot connect with the back of his head. He was slammed into the ground. He got a mouthful of dirt and then spat it out as he snapped to his feet.

Shin stood calmly behind him, one wooden sword resting on his shoulder the other resting with its tip in the ground.

Sokka charged him again but halted after the third step. Shin gave no warning to his movements. He was a blur almost as soon as Sokka stopped to consider his actions. Shin was in his face and struck him with both weapons simultaneously. The Water Tribe Warrior howled in pain anew and fought through it as best he could. He swung, missed, swung again, and was in awe as Shin parried the weapon with the utmost of ease.

Shin was toying with him.

The younger teen jumped back and eyed his opponent. Anger fueled him, but that only went so far. It clouded him. Piandao had warned him that a swordsman or a warrior in general was to never get angry. It clouded their judgment and made poor choices in the long run. He was learning that his battle right now was only confirming Shin's suspicions about him. He had to take the initiative if he wanted a better chance at enduring this.

For what felt like an eternity they stared at one another until Sokka lost his patience. He charged him. Both hands gripping his sword, he swung low. Shin jumped over his swing, flipped in the air, and landed behind the youth. Sokka turned too slowly to stop what was about to happen. Shin hit him hard, delivering a painful blow from one sword that completely broke the armor on his back. Sokka hissed in pain as he finished turning, his sword cleaving the air as he tried to take Shin's head. To Sokka's astonishment, Shin parried it again and had it sail over his head. At the very same time he raised one leg and kicked Sokka in the side of the face. Sokka heard a loud crack run through the empty air and wondered if it was his jaw that had cracked or the helmet. He was hoping it was the helmet of all things.

The Rank Five Assassin swung and connected threw more blows with both swords. Sokka was left reeling and Shin was left unimpressed with his adopted father's choice in pupils.

The young Warrior breathed through clenched teeth and hissed a curse.

Shin shook his head. "You're not worth even these wooden swords, Sokka. I believe I'll go kill your friends now. Goodbye."

Anger consumed Sokka again. Shin was serious. He was going to leave and kill his friends.

His blade and he became one for a moment as they raced up to the man. Sokka felt powerful.

In mere seconds he was behind the older teen. Shin didn't bother turning to his challenger. Instead he ducked under Sokka's too-high swing and lashed out with a painful backhand from his left sword. Pain brought Sokka to his senses. But he didn't stop. He slashed and slashed until he had Shin turned around and facing him with a hint of confusion. Sokka was a man possessed. He'd protect his friends no matter what.

Shin's left wooden sword looked like a beaten training dummy from his time learning his style of swordsmanship. It was hacked and nearing its limit. There was no value in it. It was a tool. He viewed all tools as just a tool. They were expendable. Nothing was sacred on the battlefield to him. When this was said and done he would reflect on the demise of his tools and replace them or attempt to repair them if they were retrieved.

Sokka hacked away on the wooden sword until he finally got a good swing in. Shin couldn't deflect it in time or avoid it fully. His sword took the blow and was cut clean in two just inches away from his hand. Sokka pushed his sword further and narrowly missing the teen's chest by centimeters. Were he closer he would have grazed him.

Shin jumped back, escaping the teen and examining the broken weapon in his hand. Sokka smiled triumphantly. He had managed to best him. But when he looked back in that moment he realized his own folly. He had been lured into attacking that one because it was already damaged. Shin had sacrificed it in order to make an attempt at hitting him when he wasn't focused on both weapons. Had this been a real fight Sokka was sure he'd be dead by now. No doubt Shin had noticed this and only sacrificed the sword while twitching the other hand in a means to return his focus to it.

Shin stared at the broken piece of wood one last time before tossing it away. Sokka watched it for a moment and then turned his gaze back to the teen. He held the other sword in one hand still. Why wouldn't he use both hands? Was he mocking him or was it just his style?

Shin tapped his sword to his shoulder and then flexed left hand for a moment. He stared at his palm for a moment and then stared at the black blade of Sokka's sword. He looked back at his palm and then rushed to face him.

The youth jumped back and onto a rise where he had the superior height. Shin was already up it, the moment Sokka got ready. In two pumping strides Shin was on him. Sokka thrusted his sword forward. Shin tilted his head to avoid the blade and retaliated with a hard hit to the thigh. Sokka ignored the pain as best he could and swung his sword to cleave his head off. Shin ducked and gave the teen a hard palm thrust into the chest. Sokka staggered back and was hit again by the wooden sword. Shin's wooden sword became a blur of motion as it dealt swift painful blows to the teen.

Sokka pushed through the pain and lashed out. Shin dodged his rapid swings. Without the armor to hinder him Sokka got faster and his attacks were getting closer to actually hitting him. Shin knew that the armor had been part of the problem and that his motivation was the other. All he needed was the proper motivation and Sokka's true skills would clearly show or failing that they'd only get worse and he'd be led to ruin.

Shin reached out and grabbed Sokka's wrist before he could swing again. The youth was undeterred by this and flipped his sword in his hands with a flick of the wrist. Shin let go on impulse and slid backwards. Sokka caught his sword and took the initiative. His sword lashed out, forcing the older teen back until he was standing in knee deep water.

Sokka staggered when he got waist deep in the water and blanched. He hadn't trained for fighting _in _the water just yet.

Shin used that to his advantage and quickly moved in. Sokka flailed around and slipped on a rock on the bottom. He went under as Shin swung and missed. The older teen quickly jumped back in case Sokka had done it on purpose.

The young teen burst from the water and swung his sword. Shin evaded it and slashed at Sokka. The younger teen ducked under his swing and lashed out with another. Shin was forced back to the bank. His foot slipped on the slick surface but he quickly righted himself before he could be left to the blade of Sokka. He jumped backwards and watched the teen rise out of the water. A fire burned in Sokka's eyes.

The youth charged the older teen, blade poised to skewer him. Shin turned his thrust and lashed out with a palm thrust. Sokka took it in stride and slashed as the blow connected. Shin leaned back to avoid it and kicked the Water Tribe Warrior in the shoulder to knock him off balance.

The young Warrior hissed a curse as he stumbled to the side. Shin took advantage of it and swung at him. Sokka ducked under it and was kicked in the face as he did so. Shin raised his wooden sword over his head and brought it down. Sokka hastily blocked it with the flat side of his blade to keep it from being cut and having two pieces, one that would have more force behind it, come down on his head or even come across his face. He didn't want to let that happen.

Shin blinked and then jumped back before Sokka could use his momentary confusion against him.

Sokka took it and charged. He swung for his neck. Shin calmly stood his ground and raised one hand. Sokka's eyes widened. He was going to attempt to catch the sword with just his hand? The blade struck and Sokka felt it cut through nothing. It had stopped on just a hand.

Shin used Sokka's mental shock to hit him with all his might with the wooden sword, leaving a large purple mark on Sokka's chest and collar. He wondered if he had broken his collar bone in the process or not. Sokka's blade quivered and Shin gently wrapped his entire hand around it to hold it firmly.

"You seem confused. Would you like for me to show you how I did this?" Sokka was silent. Shin gripped the blade tighter for a moment until his blood ran down the blade. He let go and stepped back as he raised his hand. "Your sword is made from a meteorite; well it's not the first item to be made from one. My armor, which is hardly worn by me, is made from a meteorite as well, but a much smaller one. Even my double bladed sword is made from one, but they don't have the same material in it that yours' has. Mine also has ground up diamonds and other materials. Your sword has a higher concentration of the meteorite in it when compared to mine and my armor. The composition is just enough for you to still cut my armor though, but not all the way through with your current level of skill."

Sokka stared at the white and black piece of armor that ran across his palm. There was a small scratch in it, but it was hardly a threat at the moment. A few more whacks and it's be cut in two. He had taken a huge risk and it paid off. His fingers were the only thing that bled.

"Sokka, do you understand now? I know you wondered why my sword was able to block yours and not have a cut to show for it. That is why."

Sokka shook his head. "But Master Piandao said that my sword was the first of its kind! How can you have one similar to it?"

"You weren't listening. My sword is different from yours because yours has a higher concentration when compared to mine. It _is _the first of its kind. Mine would be considered a good knock off or a hybrid now I suppose. Regardless, because you don't know how to use your sword to its full potential you can't cut my armor or my sword."

Sokka snarled and charged him. Shin stepped back and pivoted on his the ball of his foot. Sokka ran past him and blinked. He turned and swung his sword. Shin ducked under the high swing and lashed out with his own weapon. Sokka bent over and hopped backwards in an awkward fashion to evade the blow. He howled and swung again. Shin stepped back and evaded it. Sokka became a man possessed and swung until Shin had his back against a large rock structure. Shin swung his sword before Sokka could get a chance to swing it.

The younger teen smirked and caught it. Shin didn't flinch to this. Sokka raised his sword and brought it down. His black blade cut across his chest and left a long cut that ran from his right collar to his left third rib. It wasn't deep but it was a cut.

"I thought you said I couldn't cut you?"

Shin reached out and grabbed his throat. Sokka gagged as he was picked up and shoved into the rock structure where Shin had been pinned. He flailed about. Shin pinned his sword arm to the wall with his wooden sword pressed against his wrist. It hurt like hell.

"Did you think a simple cut like this would detour me, Sokka? And for the record, this won't end until I'm satisfied or you're dead." Shin let him go and punched him with all his might in the gut. Sokka doubled over and got a knee to the face and then a double hammer blow to the back to knock him down. Sokka coughed and attempted to roll out of the way. Shin planted one foot on his chest to keep him from moving. "Don't think so highly of yourself, Sokka. A simple cut like this is not enough to stop me or even impress me. If at anything, this only shows me just how blind you are to war. You had a chance to make a kill and you didn't go for it. I admit that I would have gotten away, but that's not the point here."

Sokka looked up at him and then to the wooden weapon that was pointed at his own throat. "I could never kill a comrade."

"I'm not your comrade though. I'm not your teacher either. I am an enemy to you, Sokka. Assassins have no allies. We only have truces until we have our orders to kill the other people. If I was ordered to kill you, I wouldn't hesitate. If I was ordered to kill Naruto, I wouldn't hesitate to do it. Killing only comes natural to me just like living."

"You're heartless! How did you become this way?"

Shin said nothing.

"You're a monster."

"We're all monsters, Sokka. Some of us just accept it and others refuse to believe it exists. War makes monsters of us all. I accept my monsters and demons and will probably pay for them in death, but I'm at peace with that." He spoke calmly.

Sokka snarled, "How can you be so calm about killing?"

"You are someone that has clearly never killed on the battlefield and seen their eyes stare into yours as they pass on. You have never smelt the fresh death of the battlefield. You are weak." Sokka swung his sword for Shin's foot. The older teen jumped away and stood up straight as the younger teen got to his feet. "I have thrown my heart away for combat, Sokka. You will receive no more mercy from me."

Sokka swung at him. Shin jumped away and charged the teen before he could fully get up. The older teen grabbed the younger one by the throat and tossed him up into the air. Sokka flailed and hastily tried to stab at the older swordsman. Shin didn't allow it and struck Sokka hard with his wooden sword four times before he hit the ground. Sokka rolled backwards from the motion and crunchy landing he endured. He rose to his feet and swung with both hands. Shin ducked evaded and swung for his face. Sokka leaned back, evading it and took another swing at the older teen. Shin evaded and swung as well only to miss.

The Water Tribe Warrior gave a loud battle cry as he swung for Shin's head. Shin remained calm even in the face of death as Sokka swung, cut him across his forehead. It wasn't deep, but it was a cut. Shin swung his wooden sword and struck Sokka hard in the chest. Sokka reached down, grabbed firm hold of it and swung with one hand for Shin's arm. Shin turned and evaded the blow without letting go of his weapon. Sokka turned and watched him and then tried to skewer him. Shin reached out before Sokka could thrust it and grabbed his wrist to stop him.

Sokka smirked. Shin stared calmly into his eyes.

Sokka opened his mouth and was kicked in the side of the head. Sokka gasped in pain as broke free of Shin's grip. He slashed. Shin ducked backwards and rolled before springing to his feet. Sokka held Shin's wooden sword triumphantly and cut it in half.

"You have no weapon now. I win."

Shin gave him a funny look and then smiled. Sokka smiled as well and then blinked when Shin got into his face and punched him hard in the jaw. Sokka swore he heard a snap and thought his jaw had broken. Shin hit him again and again until he saw a tooth skip across the ground. Sokka wobbled and then cleaved the air in front of the teen. Shin evaded the swing and hit Sokka hard with a palm thrust in the gut. Sokka doubled over, got a knee to the face, howled, and was thrown over Shin's back and onto the ground.

"You have a lot to learn, Sokka. It's a pity you might not live long enough to fully learn the secrets and ways of the Swordsman." Sokka crawled to his feet and spat blood onto the ground. Shin stared calmly as the teen wobbled, nearly fell, and then gripped his sword with both hands. "Why do you bother fighting when I'll just continue to knock you back down?"

Sokka stared at him and then hissed at him.

"Do you fight to kill me? Do you fight to save your friends from me? Do you fight me because you want to fight me for no other reason than just to fight me?" The youth had no answer. Shin accepted his silence as his own answer and sighed. "You're not worthy to train under my father, Sokka. I will kill you now."

Sokka remained silent and waited until Shin decided to make the first attack.

Shin had great patience and waited him out until Sokka charged him. The youth ran straight at him with his sword hung at his side gripped both hands. Shin calmly stepped to the side, forcing the teen to swing backwards rather than across his body. He missed and Shin stepped past him. Sokka turned to swing only to feel Shin put his back against his and push him backwards. Sokka snarled and turned with an elbow raised. Shin blocked it and elbowed him in the back of the head. Sokka stumbled forward and turned to face him.

Shin stood calmly waiting for Sokka.

The Water Tribe Warrior slashed the air between them. Shin evaded his swing. Sokka put him on the defense until they were back in the water. Sokka was knee deep in the water before he backed out and stared at the older teen. Shin remained where he was until Sokka lowered his guard.

Shin exploded into motion. He grabbed Sokka's sword hand with one hand and the other gripped his throat. Shin picked him up and tossed him at the ground. Sokka rolled, got up, swung, and stared in awe again as Shin caught his blade. He didn't hesitate like he did before. He pulled his blade back, swung again and again until they were both in the water. Sokka was waist deep and worried. Shin was hip deep and he seemed rather happy by this.

The water exploded as Shin moved like lightning for him. His hand grabbed his throat and threw him out of the water. Sokka gave a muffled cry as he hit the water bank. Shin got out of the water and charged Sokka. The youth was on his feet and slashed the air in front of him. Shin jumped over him to evade, planted his feet on the boulder behind him, and pushed off to come down on Sokka. The ground quaked and exploded upwards from the force of Shin's blow. Sokka knew that a lot of it was uncontrolled Earthbending. No human had that kind of strength.

The youth darted out of the dust cloud clutching his side. His sword quaked in his hand as he waited for Shin to burst out of the dust cloud.

The dust cloud moved around him until Sokka was immersed in it. He tensed and turned on instinct alone. Shin's hand burst forth from the cloud and grazed the side of Sokka's face. The teen turned to face the threat, sword poised for a killing blow. Shin exploded into motion and tackled the youth into the ground. Sokka's mind went blank as Shin pinned his sword arm to the ground with one arm and then palmed him in the gut with the other. Sokka felt his word go dark for a moment and then was torn away from the darkness.

Shin was relentless. Every blow he struck Sokka with felt like ten more for the youth. He was nearing his limit and he knew he couldn't beat him.

"_You'll need a courage that runs as deep as despair." _

Sokka kicked about in an attempt to through the older teen off. Shin complied but only after punching him three more times in the chest. Sokka heaved as he got to his feet, albeit shakily. He wobbled in his stance and stared at the Rank Five Assassin through blood soaked eyes. He gasped hungrily for air. He felt his vision narrowing in on Blindside. He was beginning to fade out. Would Shin kill him then?

"Sokka, what is it that you fight for?"

Sokka stared at him with hard eyes. Shin saw it in a fleeting moment. His reason for fighting was simple and naïve, but it would suffice for the time until he was a man. He still knew very little of the world, no matter how he traveled. He was young and idealistic in his views on the world. He was a practical man that sought justice for those that couldn't do it for themselves. As immature his thinking was, he was on the right track to being a powerful swordsman.

_I see what you see in him father. _

Sokka took a step forward and Shin passed him by without a word spoken. Sokka was lost in his moment of awe. Shin had moved past him in the blink of an eye and with little effort. Sokka never saw his first step or the blow that struck him in the back of the neck. He stumbled forward and then dropped to his knees. He stabbed his sword into the ground to try and stay up but it failed and the youth succumbed to the pull of gravity. The last thing to cross his mind wasn't his friends, his family, or his girlfriend Suki, but his life that he had had up until now.

_I really lived… _He marveled at that before succumbing to the darkness.

Shin stared down at the unconscious teen for a long time until he was certain that was unconscious. Only then did he take his sword from him and stab it into the ground. Sheathing the sword of another was a sin to him. The only way to sheath their sword in his mind was to stab it into the ground where they lay as a testament to their skill as a warrior and a swordsman. It was a show of honor. When Sokka would awaken they would bring him down to retrieve his sword and allow him to be on his way. He had much to do and less time to do it in.

"Very good show, Master Shin." Fat greeted warmly.

Shin said nothing.

"Thank you, son, for not breaking any bones this time around." Piandao scooped up his student and eyed his son as he departed. "No words of praise for the boy who cut you twice?"

Shin stopped and stared at his father for a moment. "You and I both know that he would be dead a thousand times over if this had been a real fight. Wooden swords or real swords. He would be dead." Shin continued on his path. "He has some skill, but just enough to get him by with. I would suggest that you send him on his way, father. His friends probably need him now more than ever." Piandao bristled at his adopted son's words. He understood what that meant. "See to his injuries as best you can though. We ship him out as soon as he wakes."

Shin vanished in the darkness, his large pet leaving with him. Piandao marveled at the large cat-like beast as he stalked through the shadows.

(-)

Shin stood on the balcony with his hands behind his back. The sun was up but Sokka was still out cold. He knew it would be awhile before Sokka awoke, but his father believed that he would be up very soon. Shin had no doubts that his father knew what he was talking about. Sokka was a mystery to him. He knew his background, his daily life, his friends, his family, why he told everyone else he fought in the war, and above all, he knew about his girlfriends' status in the world. Telling him was an option, but he wondered if Sokka even knew about her.

"You shouldn't sneak up on me like that, Fat. It's not good for your health." Shin turned and smiled at the butler. Fat raised a glass of tea and the Assassin took it without a word. He sipped on it and leaned against the stone railing. He enjoyed drinking Fat's tea the most. It was just right. Not even Iroh could copy it. "You know I'll have to leave soon, I take it?" Fat nodded mutely. "I have to leave come next dawn. I'm needed out there, Fat. I know father doesn't like it, but I'm need now, more than ever."

"I know, Master Shin. But it pains your father to know what you must do. He would rather have you join his organization fully and help them now rather than the Assassins."

"I know. But I can't leave the Assassins. They need me. And I, whether knowing or unknowingly, need them. I've done a lot of terrible things in my life, Fat. I know that we all have, but I believe I've done the worst." He rubbed the top of his tea cup for a moment and then turned back to the gate. He wanted to leave right now. But he couldn't. He owed his father that much. He had to stay one more night.

"What you told Sokka," Fat began carefully. "Did you mean it? That you would face your demons and your monsters and be happy with the outcome when death takes you?"

Shin stared out at the courtyard for a moment before nodding. "Yes. I will be happy with my death. I've tried to fill the void in my heart with you guys, but I fear it is not enough to keep the pain I feel inside me for much longer. Perhaps when this war is over I will seek a companion to help fill the void in my heart. I loved once before. Perhaps I can do it again."

"You loved your former family."

"Up until I killed them." Shin took a sip of his tea.

Silence was what he got. Shin had always been a mystery to the butler, but he never dared ask questions about him. Piandao had taken him in and that was all that he ever understood. The how and why remained elusive to him and he didn't care. So long as Master Piandao was happy he was happy. Shin was happy. They were an odd happy family. He wondered just how long the happiness would last and now he was beginning to get his answer.

"I pray for you, Master Shin. When the end comes, I'm sure you will find your happiness again and smile like you did when you came to live here."

Shin shed a tear. He had no words for Fat. Fat departed without a word and left the young master to his thoughts.

(-)

"Find anything worth mentioning?" Aang shook his head and the Rank One Assassin sighed. "Perhaps we should leave, Aang. You're duty as the Avatar is needed more in the war than dealing with a single soul that can't crossover."

"No. As the Avatar it's my duty to ensure the balance with the Spirit World and our World are in sync. The war caused this inversion. My absence caused it as well. I'm just one person, but I'm going to try and fix it all." Aang went back to patrolling through the ruined village.

The creature that had approached them had meant to get inside here. Whatever was in here it wanted. It was obvious that it also wanted to speak with Aang, but as to why he had no clue outside of just learning why he had been absent for so long. That was about the only thing he could think of. He knew that was probably a lie on his part, but he really wanted to know what it wanted.

"The sun will be down in a few hours, Aang. If you really want to meet with this thing, you should backtrack to the pit where the swords are. If it was a warrior in appearance, that would be the best place to start looking for it and waiting for it. Chances are it will show up there first. I mean, you said you saw it once in the fog when we were there. Right?" Aang nodded mutely. "I'll go with you to protect you, but my powers can't protect you from something I can't see. So don't take comfort in my presence, alright?"

"Alright," Aang said. He looked back at the sky where the sun was beginning to set. _I need to hurry. _Aang took off running for the pit. It had taken then a few days just to get this far at a slow pace. At a fast pace on Appa they could get there in a matter of hours.

The two made their way out of the camp after explaining things to the others. Though Zentrai and Lyra were quick to order him to stay, they ultimately withdrew their orders when they realized that Naruto was having an idea of his own during this. Katara ended up going with them, not for her own curiosity, but because she wanted to ensure that Aang remained safe. Toph remained behind with the other two Assassins to rest and relax.

Once they were loaded up on Appa it took them two hours to return to the pit. The fog had already started to roll in as soon as they landed. Katara confirmed with Aang that it wasn't a natural fog, meaning it wasn't something she could get rid of. Though Naruto was hard pressed to admit it, he didn't like that the fog was beyond their control. Instead he walked through it with the two close behind him. They marched in silence for the center of the gravesite where Blindside had been praying. Aang had already admitted to feeling something there and wanted to check it out.

Aang stared down at the busted sword that was stabbed into the ground. It was old and covered with dry blood. He wanted to touch it but something told him not to. He did find it strange that dry blood even remained on the thing given the amount of time that had gone by since the battle here. The sword had to been stuck in the ground for seventy years almost, maybe more. And yet, with no sign of blood or freshly slain creatures around it was covered in dried blood.

Naruto felt uneasy around the place and soon began pacing. To keep himself stable he created five clones and had them patrol the area. He didn't like the idea of not knowing what might be out there or having it have the ability to see them without him being able to see them. That just didn't sit well with him.

His clones scattered around to form a loose circle around the pit and started patrolling. Naruto was happy to know that they at least understood the severity of the situation. In the past they would have complained just like he would have. Maybe it was the course of time that he'd been here that had allowed him to mature, meaning his clones were as mature as him now. They understood the world just a bit better and as a result wouldn't act stupid over this.

Katara approached Aang as he stared at the broken sword. She didn't know what to say at the moment. What could she say? This was his duty and for once she couldn't give him words of encouragement. She felt lost the entire time.

Aang began to doze off after two hours of waiting. It was then that it showed up.

The young Avatar snapped to attention as it approached the sword. "I'm the Avatar; the bridge between our world and the Spirit World. Why are you still here?"

It stopped and then snarled. One hand tightened and a sword materialized in its grasp. It was a hideous thing. It was covered in purple flesh with an eye in the center of the blade. It was long and large and appeared un-wieldable.

"_**Avatar," **_it's rasped out. _**"You are a traitor!" **_

Aang stood up, not to defend himself or to run, but to make a stand. This was soul was here only because of his absence and was tied down to the world because of his time gone. Aang wished he could have explained. But the Avatar could have no excuses for being gone other than death. If that was the case then he had a perfect one. He _had _been dead to the world for over a hundred years. But he was _physically _dead. There was a difference. Still, he had been dead and thus he had an excuse. But that excuse also tied in to the fact that he had ran away.

Aang took a single step back before holding his ground. "I know I made the mistake of running away from my destiny. And I know I shouldn't have done it. But, I want to try and let you understand why I did what I did."

"_**You are the Avatar. There is no excuse for allowing me to do what I had no idea of. Do you not think it strange that I linger here only because I wish not to move on?" **_It stepped towards him and stopped, as if it were consulting with someone else. It spoke in a mixture of odd grunts and growls before snarling at Aang. _**"I detest you. You caused all of this!" **_With one hand he swung the sword. A powerful blast of wind overtook everything and Aang was thankful that earth was a stubborn element when he encased his feet in rock to hold him steady. _**"Oh how I wish I could end you, here and now, Traitor Avatar. Long have you watched over us, but when things got bad you turned your back on the world!"**_

"Please listen to me. I understand what happened. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for turning my back on the world. I was scared. Alone even. And I didn't want to be the Avatar."

"_**Do you not think that foolish and undeserving, Traitor Avatar? The stories I was told before my death were heroic tales of the Avatar standing up to impossible odds and either besting the enemy or falling in a heroic way that conveyed a message to the world. Yet you, Traitor Avatar, fled the world when it was on the brink of chaos. You could have stopped this war from coming and failed to act."  
**_

"I know I failed."

"_**On more than one account, Traitor Avatar." **_Confusion crossed Aang's features and it growled. The ground quaked beneath his feet. _**"Do you not think that I, after spending decades stuck here, haven't learned about your previous life's utter failure as the Avatar as well? Avatar Roku betrayed us. He should have seen the war coming and put an end to it before it began. But he cowered out and ran away to his island where he sat and died! He knew of the war. The Earth Kingdom was the first to suffer even before the war truly began with his death! I hate you for what you and your previous incarnations have done. You're failures have grown too much. The Avatar line must end. We seek you for guidance and support when we have none. We cower behind you, hoping that you will bring us victory. But what do we get for that? A cold shoulder and an endless war."**_

Aang bit back a reply. What could he say to him anyways? He wasn't around for the beginning of the war. But he didn't understand the first part. What did he mean when he said that his predecessor had run away to his island while the world was thrown into chaos?

The lost soul stepped towards him again and growled deeply from his throat. It stared at him waiting for an answer. After some time Aang finally glanced away from him.

"_**I despise you for your failure."**_

"You hate me for something I didn't do yet through the cycle of rebirth basically did?" It nodded. "That's wrong. I admit that it was my fault for abandoning the world. I left because I was afraid. The Monks told me that they aren't supposed to tell me until I'm sixteen. But because of the troubling signs of war they had to tell me anyways. I wasn't ready for it. And they were going to take me away from everyone I cared for and loved. Don't you understand that I was only a child?"

"_**I don't really care. You're the Avatar. It's in your blood to put the needs of the world before your own. You are its protector, its savior, its hope. Yet you caste us aside for your own desires and wants. You speak about being a child and thrust into something you are too afraid to do. I died when I was only thirteen. I, too, am just a child!"**_

Aang took a step back and glanced up at Naruto. He clearly couldn't see the fallen soldier, but he was getting Aang's side of the conversation. But he was confused. Aang was confused as well and that made Naruto confused.

"Naruto, how old was Xin Toju when he died?"

The former Jinchuuriki blinked. "He was around thirty I think. I never read up on his history to be honest. But why do you ask?"

Aang ignored him and turned back to the lost soul. "What's your real name? Xin Toju was the man who supposedly led the army here, lost his life, and would have been older than you. So who are?"

"_**Xin Toju!" **_It screamed in anger. Aang felt voices all around as the fog began to thin around them. _**"Xin Toju is the reason I died. He came to me, wounded, and near death. I was just a child. I didn't understand what was going on. He gave me the suit. Gave me his sword. Told me to promise him to find his troops and stand in his place. I didn't understand."**_

"So if you're not Xin Toju, who are you really?"

"_**I'm… not sure anymore." **_His anger left him for a split second. Anger was replaced by pain in his eyes and he snarled a low curse as a result. His anger snapped back and he took another step towards the Avatar. _**"I didn't understand what he had asked me. He sent me here, to this very spot, where I stood and watched hundreds of men and women fight and die for a reason I didn't understand. I was brought here with my mother and father. I watched them die shortly after I became trapped here."**_

He swung his sword for the Avatar. Aang snapped back and watched him. Ghost or not, his weapon, while not real, was a threat as well. Even if he couldn't physically touch Aang, he still felt like if he got hit by it that he would be wounded.

It snarled at him before stepping closer.

"Please listen to me. I want to save you." It swung again. "I'm sorry for what I've done. I was scared. I didn't know what was going to happen to me. I didn't want to even be the Avatar when they told me. I thought, and believed that it was a lie. That they had somehow gotten it wrong."

"_**That does not justify your heresy!" **_

A/N

Sorry for the long wait. This chapter is being cut short because I realized how long it was actually becoming and didn't want to overdo it.

The reason this chapter took so long was not because of how much I wrote so you all know. My grandmother, whom I've been living with for the last three years, died a month ago and it messed me up as a result, which didn't help much later since I got my Wisdom Teeth pulled. I say pulled, but in reality I had one pulled and two cut out. Needless to say, I was pretty much just messed up for about a month.


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 22

Sokka awoke with a start and gasped as his body screamed in protest to his quick actions. He could feel the bandages that covered him. He sighed and decided that lying down was better than moving around and being in pain.

Sokka's thoughts turned to the fight. He wondered how long he had been out. Hours? No. That didn't feel right. He could tell it was more than hours since it was nearly dawn. The sun was just starting to break through the trees. Days didn't feel right either. Hours sounded better, but it was somewhere between hours and days to him.

"It's about time you awoke." Sokka nearly jumped out of his skin. Shin was standing at the foot of his bed. He hadn't noticed him and clearly Shin noticed it. "You should always check your surroundings when you awaken, Sokka. It makes things easier on you. If I were ordered to kill you when you awoke I would have done it easily. You're not very mindful of the world around you."

"I'll have you know that I am pretty mindful of the world around me. But I'd like to see you take the beating you gave me and then wake up ready to go."

"I've done it a dozen times." Sokka stared at him. Shin stared him down as he said, "I've been stabbed, cut, clubbed, poisoned, and even pushed off of a cliff, and then had to sleep in the same room as the top Three Ranking Assassins. Yet I'm still alive. And when I awoke I always checked my surroundings to make sure another attempt wasn't coming. So don't try and say that one beating would stop you from doing that. That's just a pathetic excuse."

Sokka said nothing. Instead he turned his gaze to the window and merely stared out it.

"You must rest. In a few hours you'll be departing."

"Why?"

"You're friends are in danger. I can't get a message to Naruto to warn him of the threat that is now on its way to him." Sokka sat upright in bed and stared at him. "I had nothing to do with this. But our people have uncovered an Assassin, a Fire Nation Assassin at that, to go out and kill the Avatar. We can't allow that to happen. So I'm sending you out now to warn them. Normally I'd depart and give them the message myself, but you're heading in that direction. You can take the message to them. I'm needed back out on the battlefield and my student is waiting for me."

"So just because you have to do something else, you're dumping this on me?"

"Yes."

"You really are heartless."

Shin sighed. "No, Sokka. I'm just a practical person. I see things the easy way and the hard way. This is the easy way. The hard way would involve me leaving to meet them and give them the message and then turning right back around and heading back to our village. I have to be there in three days. Three days is just long enough for me to get to the gates and be inside before my time runs out."

"So what if you're late? What's the big deal?"

"Tardiness is not becoming of me for one thing. And the other is that they may think I'm a spy if I show up late. We, the Assassins, fear even our own members at times. It is not a matter of pride or honor that causes this, but the shadows that we bath ourselves in, Sokka. We have walked the edge of the abyss and seen what only a few could truly see. We are the shadows that are poised in the night to kill as we are told. If we bath in the shadows and slay from it, we have also learned to fear it. Though the shadows bid us welcome, they do so with opens arms and knives behind their backs. Do you understand?"

Sokka nodded mutely.

"Good. Now rest up. You're leaving next time you awaken."

Sokka grumbled a low curse and resided to the fate of falling asleep. His wounds helped him because of his constant tossing and turning. The pain blacked him out.

(-)

Ty Lee sank deeper into the water as she felt her mind go numb from a long night of stress filled sleep. It was nerve wrecking to know she had slept in such an odd position to begin with, but it left a crick in her back that she just couldn't pop. Bathing in warm water usually helped her a lot, but right now it was only succeeding in making her mind go blank. It did help in the fact that she was trying to devoid herself of all thinking at the moment. She was having a tough time accomplishing that though.

She inhaled the warm water vapors through her nose and closed her eyes. It felt good to let off some steam and inhale some on the rare occasion. It wasn't a drug, but if you were one to like odd things, it did have a narcotic sort of effect. It allowed her to unwind and clear her mind while releasing all the stress in her joints and muscles. She'd prefer a spa over this though. Nothing beat a spa.

Her door was rapped and she instantly hugged her knees to her chest.

"I'll be out in a minute!" She called out.

"Hello."

Her blood ran cold. The voice, so easy going and serious at the same time, and yet full of happiness… It was Naruto. She turned and looked at the window. It was opened and he was standing right there in her presence with a happy-go-lucky grin. Her fears vanished and her sanity crossed over with it. She stood, fully naked, and wrapped her arms around him. Fear then consumed her.

"I'm sorry, but I heard you were here. I just wanted to come and see you. I've been looking for you." She felt joy course through her. He came here for her. "Oh, you're taking a bath. Can I join you?"

"Well… uh… you see…" She turned away from him and then it hit her. She was naked. She hastily tried to cover her modesty with her arms and turned red. Naruto laughed and she felt like melting again. Why was she acting like this around him? "Why?"

He planted an arm behind her on the wall and grabbed her chin with one hand. It was soft. With a gentle pull their lips melt and she lost it. Her hands roamed over his body and soon his clothes were on the floor. He took her in the bathtub and her heart raced as he slid into her. It hurt but then the pain went away. Her nails dug into his back as he pumped her and engaged in a tongue war with her. He pulled back and teased her before bringing his lips closer to hers again. They came together and she felt bliss run through her. It was the best-

"Ty Lee!"

The young Acrobat blinked as she was torn away from her moment. Naruto was gone. She was in the bathtub. The water was cold though and the soap bubbles were gone.

_I fell asleep? _She cursed herself. Why did someone have to ruin that dream? "Yes?" She wondered just where the dream was and then noticed where her left hand was. She yanked it away from between her legs and recoiled in minor horror to her actions. She had been masturbating in her sleep in the bathtub.

The door opened and Mai stepped in with one hand covering her eyes. "Please tell me you're dressed."

"Uh… Nope!" She laughed. Mai groaned but took her hand down. By this point Ty Lee had at least procured a towel to cover up her modesty. "So what's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about your little moment at the beach." A scowl appeared on Ty Lee's face. The appearance shocked Mai right into a look of surprise. Ty Lee missed it. Her mind had gone back to that day and she felt anger boil through her. She wanted to punch Azula just for that moment. "Are you feeling alright?" Ty Lee nodded without understanding the question. Mai noticed but said nothing. She'd tell her later. "I just wanted to check on you. I mean, you've been acting a little strange these last few days. It had me worried."

The young acrobat smiled and waved at her. She dropped the towel as a result. Mai kept her eyes glued to her face though. She wouldn't look down. "Sorry," she replied in her usual bubbly fashion. She picked the towel up and for a moment envisioned Naruto in the room again. Why had he appeared in her dreams? _Am I losing it just like Azula is? _

"Are you alright?" The brooding Weapon Mistress took a few steps to her friend and then stared at her. Tears were streaming for Ty Lee's eyes. She didn't appear sad though. It was as if she had no idea on why it was happening or even aware of it. Mai pulled her into a hug that shocked the acrobat into motion. She tried to break free before remembering that Mai was in the room and the one holding her. Then it hit her and she cried. Mai rubbed her back. "What's wrong, Ty Lee? You haven't been yourself since we got back. Are you sure you're alright?"

Ty Lee tried to nod but her body wouldn't respond. For a moment she thought she was back in the bathtub sleeping but that quickly faded away. Mai was very real. Naruto had no aura and she hadn't picked up on that. That meant it was a dream. But Mai had an aura and that meant it was real. But with her body unable or unwilling to function how she wanted, Mai quickly engulfed her fully into a hug. Then she cried.

"It's alright, Ty Lee." Mai whispered to her. Her words brought no comfort. What could she do to protect her from someone like Azula? Words alone were not enough. "Get dressed," she whispered. "You and I will go into town today and go shopping."

Ty Lee stopped and smiled. "But you hate shopping."

"True. But you look like you need help and a chance to get away. I'm going to help you."

Ty Lee blinked in confusion but soon let it go. She was getting out of her home and what more could she want? She could have Zuko tag along. They'd need a pack mule in a sense to carry all the things she may or may not get.

(-)

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" Den lowered his hand and sat the metal tongs on the desk to his side. It was fully covered in all the things he needed for torturing a person. Some were for show like the giant knives and the pieces of wire he had. Some thought he was crazy for carrying around wire since they saw no value in it during torture. He did. He used it. He got what he wanted and then-some with the wire. It was a horrifying thing to see him at work.

The man in question nodded mutely. After dealing with Len, his girlfriend, for two days, a man was a sight for sore eyes. In this case, really sore eyes.

"How old are you?"

A change in topic? "Thirty-nine," the man answered.

"Thirty-nine years old," Den repeated with ease. He was calm. "What do you know about the human body?" The man remained quiet. "Did you know that there are over a dozen pressure points in the human body, all with their very own unique settings if you will to the pain that they can take? This pain is obviously controlled by the person, whom has a better understanding of it since it is his or her body. So if I apply pressure here," he put his thumb right beneath his ear and pressed with very little pressure to make the man scream, "you feel intense pain. So let's make this easy on both of us. What were the minerals for that you were taking back to the Fire Nation?"

The man started at him as Den pulled his hand back. A look of defiance crossed his features. Den remained perfectly calm and composed.

"Nothing someone like you would understand." Den nodded as if understanding. "The only reason you have me in here is because you caught me, but more to the point, because I'm a traitor. I've seen the wanted posters. I'm wanted for my treason."

"You sold information to the Fire Nation about the Water Tribes defenses and who their leader is. I'd even go so far as to say you knew things that no one else is supposed to know. But we'll leave that out of this." He flexed his thumb and the man got the idea. "What are the minerals for? You were transporting a large supply of iron ore to the Fire Nation. Usually they smelt it down here away from their lands to not pollute their waters and land, so why not now? Where were you taking it?"

Defiance crossed his feature again. How long would it take to break the man, he wondered. Hours? Days? Weeks? Months? He didn't have that sort of time. He was a patient person. All things came to those who waited. But Den was never one to truly wait like a good little boy. If he wanted something from you, he could get it in no time flat. Information was key to any war. He was their master. He got what you wanted, plain and simple. People went to him for information, torture, and interrogation.

"Do you think I'll crack under a few pressure points?"

"No." Den reached down and grabbed the tongs. "Have you ever heard of dental torture? It's quite painful. Ironically, you could die from losing all your teeth. I've killed a few people while trying to master this one. It's not something that's easy to understand. I still don't fully understand it. But I have a theory on it." With snake like movements, he jabbed a small piece of metal in his mouth to keep it opened as he stabbed the tongs' into his mouth and clamped it down on a single tooth in the far back of his mouth on the roof. "There are major teeth that have roots all the way to major blood vessels in the body. This is just a theory, but if I were to rip out said tooth, you might bleed to death on the spot. Lucky for you, this tooth I'm holding isn't the one. However, with it being in the far back, and with your current age, this will hurt quiet a lot."

Den twisted the tongs'. The man had a look of surprise. Den felt it too. His tooth snapped off. It didn't come out. It snapped off. It was infected. Den shrugged and tore it out. That would still hurt him for a while. Even now the man had finally succumbed to the agonizing pain of having a tooth broken. Den only knew what it felt like because he had once chipped a tooth. It never healed right after, but he understood that if a chipped tooth hurt bad, then a broken one that was fully mature hurt like no tomorrow.

Den waited for him to stop screaming. He spat blood out and yanked against the chain restraints that bound him.

"Don't spit the blood out. It will keep you alive longer. I know it sounds wrong to swallow your own blood, but it keeps you alive longer. In fact, it's actually safer to do this rather than spit the blood out."

The man ignored him and continued to spit it out. "I'd rather die, anyways."

"If that were true, you'd have bitten your tongue in half already and drowned in your own blood. You've been here for days and yet haven't done that. You want to live. Only a fool would say that and not know about that." Den waited for a reply of some sort before continuing. "You are going to die, though. Anyone that is brought to my home never leaves alive unless I have orders to do so. You are a traitor to your people and have joined the Fire Nation for reasons we don't yet know. So, tell me, why did you join the Fire Nation?"

"What would you care? You're safe here, obviously."

The torture expert gave an indifferent shrug of his shoulders before walking over to the man's back with the small knife.

"You have it so easy over here. You weren't out there on the front lines watching your comrades die. I've survived eighteen encounters with the Fire Nation and survived with no wounds. I've watched them torch villages and burn our crops to weed us out. I've watched everything this world can throw at me. I'm sure if you were in my place, a man with a family of four kids and one wife, you'd snap just like I did. I choose the only logical option at the time. My family is more important than my nation. They understood that."

Den was quiet. He was more engrossed in his own past to care about that. Yes, if he hadn't been a part of the Assassins, he just might have done the same thing. Switch to the winning team at the last second and stay with them until they won. Yeah, he'd be seen as the ultimate traitor for doing that to his people, but survival was key there. He'd get to live and there would be no way of stopping that should the Fire Nation actually wanted to keep him.

"So you traded your honor for the winning team? You put your family before your nation. That's a bit sad, but I fully understand. I would do the same in your shoes. However, I have a duty to uphold. I need information. And the only thing stopping me from getting it is your pride and honor." Den stopped and looked him over. The man seemed fiercely determined to keep the information. "Do you wanna know what I've learned in my time as a torture expert? It's that no one can withhold what I want when I know what they have fought for. Even someone that has lost everything hasn't lost everything yet. You said you have a family."

The man's eyes grew in size. Panic sat in.

Den snapped his fingers and the door parted. A pale looking teen with shorn hair and neutral eyes stood in the doorframe.

"Find his family and bring them here."

"Yes, Sir." He departed.

Den looked back at the man with neutral eyes once more before waiting. This would work. It always worked.

(-)

Fat poured the tea and Sokka thanked him with a small nod. The butler returned it and departed before Sokka or Piandao could take a sip. The doors shut and Piandao took a sip.

"Good as always," he remarked. Sokka nodded after taking his sip. The very action hurt him, but the pain was being dulled by a combination of herbs and medical treatments he had been given. "You're leaving after this. Your stuff has already been gathered up, I take it?" Sokka nodded mutely. "Good. You must depart after this. I wish to speak with you, and then you'll leave."

Piandao inhaled and then began.

"When the war is over you are to return here for training. I want you as my apprentice to carry on my style of swordsmanship, Sokka. I have never come across an able person such as you in a very long time. The last one was killed by his own vengeance. You are not the same. You don't want revenge like the others did. You wanted it to feel like you could accomplish something grand that will move the world. I gave you that. I taught you my style and helped you create your sword. Though my son, Shin, disagrees with me, you are an able person and the finest warrior I have stumbled across in a long time."

"Thank you."

Piandao raised a hand to silence him.

"But there is a more important crisis to worry about at the moment, Sokka. Your friends are in danger."

"Shin told me."

"I know. He informed me of your talk with him. While I am worried for your friends, namely the Avatar, I am worried for you as well." He took a deep breath. "Sokka, I am fully aware of your view of the world. You are still young to the ways of the world, and I understand that. You have some sort of a grasp on it, but not a full one. You are still young and have yet to fully understand the world as it is. You have not come to an understanding with the other Nations. You have spoken with an Air Nomad and the people of the Earth Kingdom, but you have yet to grasp the Fire Nation. We were once a proud Nation. Now we are this. We are a group of people that have suffered greatly because of this war."

"I understand."

_Sure you do, _Piandao thought. "What I want to tell you is that the world itself is moving in a way we don't know about. We can't predict the way of the world will change, as that is the way of the world. Though we try to catch up with it, we fall insanely short of our goal. Though we fall short we still try to catch up regardless."

"Why try to catch up then? Why not simply just sit back and watch? See where the world takes us?"

"As easy as that would be, we cannot. We cannot simply follow and see where the world would go, but as much as we want to follow the way of the world, we simply cannot. I mean; how can we follow something that we have no power to control."

"So you're saying that we can't sit and watch, and that we can't catch up? Then why do we move forward anyways?"

Piandao gave a shrug. "It is the way we have always gone. Follow, lead, or watch. Those are the things we have always done. But things are different now. We cannot simply follow now or watch. We have to take the reins and move forward to change the world with our own hands. You have a strength I wish for. As I'm sure I have a strength you wish for. You are young and will be one of the many to step forward into a bold new era when this war is over."

"You seem like you are expecting me to change the world on my own."

"I'm not giving it to you. I am letting you know that your generation will pave the way for the future generations. Our generation is still mourning for the fact that your generation has been pulled into the war. You were forced to fight a battle that we didn't want you to get involved in before we could finish it. We have never felt more horribly in our lives for doing such a thing."

"It's not your fault. We got dragged into the war because we wanted to try and end it. Is that so wrong to get involved into something like this because we wanted to try and make it end? The cycle must be broken. I wanted to help end that cycle. Somebody has to do it."

"How idealistic. How would you break it?"

"That's simple. When somebody wins"

"How childish."

"Childish or not, it is the only way. How else can this war be ended?"

Piandao smiled. "This is the difference between you and I. I have seen the world for all it holds. You haven't. There are others ways to end a war without fighting. Talking is one of them. Understanding is another. In my time on the battlefield I have learned to talk without talking and gain and understanding with another. I have learned to fight with words rather than swords. You haven't learned these things yet. You will at some point in your life."

"I understand."

"Do you really?" The old Master smiled and then took a sip of his tea. "I have a question for you, Sokka. Is it good to be powerful?"

"I have no idea."

"Would you say it is good to be weak?" Sokka remained quiet. "The Fire Nation has become powerful. Too powerful in my eyes. But their power has corrupted them. You have seen what it has caused them to become. I know you have. But I wish not to speak with you about this. I want to hear your answer for fighting now. I want to know what you fight for. Tell me now."

Sokka remained silent and then turned away from the old Master. Piandao wasn't shocked by his lack of an answer. The old man nodded as if understanding his silence.

"Here," he tossed a small leather bag to him. "Take that and remember me. There is nothing more I wish to speak with you about. Go and face your demons and be the monster that wars makes us. But try to never lose sight of yourself and stay true to your path. Remember to love and live."

Sokka nodded with hesitation and stood up to leave. Piandao watched him go and then smiled. Sokka was moving right along a set path to greatness. He couldn't be prouder.

(-)

"He didn't know much."

Rehka moved her food around on her plate. "It's touching," she remarked. Den closed his eyes and smiled. "So if he didn't know anything other than that he was transporting stuff for the Fire Nation, why did you drag his family down with him?"

"You told me to get the information from him by any means necessary. I was only following my orders."

The torture expert pulled out a thin knife and began flipping it around in his hands. Under normal circumstance that would be seen as an attempt on her life. But with Den it was different. He was currently in his room where he did his nasty job and the rules didn't apply here. This was his home away from home. He was a King here and you were his subjects. He was the King among men for his abilities at getting information from people. No one, to her knowledge, had ever withheld anything he wanted from him and lived to tell the tale.

"But why drag his family down with him? That much I don't understand. They were just bystanders."

"War is gruesome. No one is innocent. Everyone is a pawn in the grand scheme of things. That was the one thing Naruto and Zentrai didn't like about me. I see people as pawns when I've been told to get information. I'll do it by any means necessary. Brutal? Yes. Effective? Very."

"It was wrong."

"Would you rather have a body so gruesome I seem inhuman or a body that can be near perfectly intact? Given those two choices I say I made the right call. In the grand scheme of things I saved them a great deal of trouble. They would have been hated by their own people. Friends and other family members would have looked down on them with hatred for her husbands' actions. I saved her from a life of pain and misery by killing her and their kids. It's all just a means to an end, really."

She gave him a snappy expression and then munched on her food.

"But I have learned that they're pulling back all of their troops in an attempt to bolster their home defenses." Rehka munched some more on the piece of lettuce and then looked away. "The Earth Kingdom's King, Kuei, has become a liability. Though he is a King, he a weakling and has no skill at being a King. We must kill him before he becomes a serious threat to us and the invasion plan that is coming. If he has been captured then we have failed. If he has goofed and spoken about the coming invasion, he has become a danger to us and others around him."

"Is that how you work? Kill and move on?"

"I have always been these way. All things will come to an end with me." Den rose to his feet and turned towards the door. "I'm leaving now. I have other things to take care of."

Rehka gave him a hard glare as he departed without a word spoken.

_So much for the man that can see into the minds of his victims… _She continued eating.

(-)

"_**That does not justify your heresy!" **_

Aang took a step back as the trapped soul took a step towards him. His mind was racing. A previous heresy he had done in a previous life? Was he talking about Roku? What heresy had Roku done?

"_**How I wish I could kill you now! I could curse you, but the Spirits would save you."**_

"Then we're at a crossroad. You won't move on. I want to save you and save the world. I ran away once and decided against standing and staying save the world because I was afraid. Give me a chance. I'll save the world. You don't even have to believe me."

"_**I don't believe you. This world is beyond saving in my eyes. I have spent decades here watching as we fought over land that we didn't even want. I watched as troops from both sides returned here once more to do battle. They fought like beasts just for this pit only to turn around after it was all said and done and leave without doing anything. They only tended to their dead and not ours! You speak of saving the world and saving me! Start by saving your own name by putting an end to the war. Then we'll talk!"**_

"But I can do both at the same time!"

"_**No. Though you are the Avatar, you are a child at heart. You're eyes are not open to the world. Save if you will, but I will not depart. I wish to see it with my own eyes. You say you'll save the world yet I believe you wish to get rid of me just so you can cover up your previous mistakes. You're a failure as both the Avatar and a Human. You're nothing a monster. You hid away during the war and when you came back you only played and did the stuff you wanted. You lived the life you wanted because it suited you better. Look at the people that suffered because of your actions alone since you've been out! The Kyoshi Island, which had managed to stay out of the war for ages, was suddenly dragged into it because of your presence."**_

Aang bit down on his tongue. As much as he wanted to scream in protest, he knew that it was right. He had been ordered to leave though. They were after him. With his departure the Fire Nation troops had departed as well to give chase. They followed him out the village and it was spared anymore death and destruction. He also helped in putting out the fires. Yes he had ultimately caused its destruction, but he saved it as well.

And then there were the few victories where he saved villages. He had never thought much on it, but a part of him, some dark and twisted part, knew that those they saved suffered even more. The Fire Nation probably went back, re-captured it, and then killed everyone for going along with him. And he didn't want to think about what was happening in Ba Sing Se. He had utterly failed there. He felt dirty for not going back and trying to save them. But, as Naruto had told him, it would only lead to his death and the utter destruction of their world.

"_**The look on your face tells me I'm right. How many people have suffered because of you? How many more will suffer for your actions, I wonder. Only time will tell."**_

"You make that sound as though you have no faith in me."

"_**Faith is for the weak. I was taught to be strong and stubborn. We were made to believe in only what we could touch and slay with our own hands. These words of mine have no meaning to me, as they are not my own. But I do not believe in you. I have no faith in you."**_

"Then why wait for me to save them world or die trying? Why not leave and go ahead, rejoin in the cycle of rebirth?"

"_**Why be reborn into a world filled with filth and poverty? Of pain and sorrow? Of hatred and lust? Why come back at all to a world not like it once was? Only the stupid follow their faith blindly. The strong pave the way to utter annihilation. And the weak get trampled on in the process of the stupid and the strong. To be reborn in a world not of your own and filled only with the worst life has to offer in your previous life is just idiotic. I'll stay put, thank you very much. I'll bask in my sorrow and mock the living that try to survive in this harsh world."**_

"You're contradicting yourself."

"_**Don't get philosophical with someone like me, traitor Avatar. When I was alive my mother made me study till I fell asleep. I know more than you ever could in more ways than one." **_

"As true as that is, why stay when you could have a chance at being reborn in the Fire Nation where you'll be happy?"

"_**And join the enemy that so happily slaughtered my family? You are mad to think of such a thing."**_

"But you'll remember nothing of your previous life."

"_**Start over and remember nothing of your heresy? You'd like that, wouldn't you? But it wouldn't serve much of a purpose for you. Others know of your twisted heresy. The Fire Sages know of it well. Just like the rest of the world knows of your heresy." **_It crept around him and gripped the sword tightly. _**"Your heresy is abandonment, just like your predecessor. He abandoned us and betrayed us by not stopping the war when it started."**_

"He was dead."

"_**So little you know. I know how the Avatar system works. You are trained by your predecessor to overcome them in all shapes and be the being that they strived for. Your goal is to protect the world, but you can't do it as you are. I can see it in your eyes." **_Aang shifted uneasily and then sighed. The soul was making no sense. _**"You bore me. You would sit and argue to no end with a soul that is attached to this place when instead you could be fighting the Fire Lord. How pathetic."**_

"We're preparing for an invasion."

"_**Like no one has thought of that."**_

"During the day of Black Sun?" The soul hissed a curse that chilled Aang to the bone. "Why are you angry about that? The Fire Nation will be helpless."

"_**You believe that simply because they cannot bend their element anymore they will be easy to kill? You are stupid. They are more than just benders of elements, traitor Avatar. They are warriors. If they can't fight with their element they will fight with their fists, swords, and claws. They will not stop fighting until the sea ground is littered with their mangled bodies and their blood runs rivers through the land. They will die for what they believe in, just as any other human would. What a weak and simple minded group of people we are. Alive we think of money, fame, women, and power. When we die we think of pain, regret, and how we could have done better. Such stupidity."**_

"Is that what you think of? How you could have done better if you were alive?"

"_**No. I think of the man that caused my death." **_He examined his clawed hand as though it was an alien appendage to him. It was hideous, but who was he to say what was beautiful and what was ugly? He was dead. _**"Tell me; why should I believe that you can stop this war now when you ran away so long ago? What proof do you have for me to make me believe that you can change the world?"**_

"I'm the Avatar."

"_**That is not an answer. You are merely a mortal of flesh and blood. You are easy to break, just as any other being is. Though we can be as tough as mountains, we can still crumble beneath the weight of our power. Being the Avatar changes nothing. You hide behind that title in the hope that they weak cower behind you for support while the run hide in fear of your illusions and false power. The very word has lost all meaning. People see you as a mighty Spirit that has come to save them from their oppressors. I see you as that too, but I also see you for your failures. I may be filled with rage, but I am an understanding soul."**_

Aang nodded in contempt with his statement. Evil and Good were words he understood now. Wrong and Right were words as well. This soul, insane or angry, spoke only of the misgivings of the Avatar and how weak it made people. Was it good to be strong? Was it a crime to be weak? As sick as it was, the Avatar was more of a shield and sword, rather than a living person that loved and felt just like any other. They had turned him into a being to hide behind and fear when someone threatened the balance of the world. It was his duty, but why couldn't people work their own issues out among each other in talk? The Avatar was a voice of reason and with his influence made people bow to him in respect and fear.

It was sickening just to think about all the ways the soul was right. People became weak in his presence. The appearance of an army could be seen as a terrible thing or a good thing. To one Nation it would seem like a potential threat. To another it could seem as an effort for protection. Only the fearful created an army. And only the greedy made an army and sent it out. And with the Avatar, those without power fell behind him. Those with power challenged him or fled from him. The title as Avatar was losing its meaning.

But titles seemed to be losing their weight for the rest of the world as well. Admiral Zhao was proof of that. He wasn't skilled at anything really. Yes he had plans and goals, but he fell short. His attack on the Northern Water Tribe was proof of his skills as a tactician, but that only went as far as how he commanded them so long as he had a suitable advisor. If Zhao was proof that the Fire Nation was getting lax on their titles as well, handing them to people who were undeserving of it, then what exactly did that truly mean for Aang? Was his title just as false, if not more so, then the titles given to people like Zhao?

"_**You doubt yourself now. Good." **_Aang shot him a heated glare. It withered away moments later. _**"Though I was never a warrior of any kind, I never saw the Avatar as a being of supreme power. You can be killed, which means you are mortal just like the rest of us. True you are reborn in the cycle of rebirth, but your body can be broken. You are just as frail as us." **_

Aang had nothing to say. Mortal was one way of putting it, he guessed. For all the souls' anger, it was spent mostly dragging his name through the mud and showing him the world. Darkness was born from light. But the light was born from darkness. Hatred existed because of love. Good existed because there was evil. Words. That's all it amounted to. Words and sins. Sins that he, along with his past lives, committed in the name of peace, love, and balance. How childish it was to blame him for something a past live did. But he understood that enough to know what it was getting at. He needed to wake up.

"I won't be able to kill the Fire Lord."

"_**You have killed already, but not by your hand directly." **_Aang shuddered. He knew that to be somewhat true. Just because he sent troops off a cliff to protect something or someone didn't mean he killed them. The fall killed them. It was like a kunai stabbing someone. Do you blame the owner of the knife or the blacksmith who forged it? Perspective. That's what it all boiled down to. _**"You have slain the lives of many, but not with your hands alone. You're disappearance killed a lot of people. You, of all the people I have seen, face more monsters and demons then I would ever have to face. Not even your protectors face the amount of demons and monsters you have. They have killed, but you abandoned the world. Your sins march through time from the moment you vanished to the moment you were awoken. All you can do now is face them down one at a time. And in the end you will be left with nothing."**_

"If I can't move on, I'll be left with nothing."

The soul nodded and looked towards the rim of the pit. Its eyes flickered with rage and understanding. Another soul had just passed on.

(-)

"This letter was given to me by Shin to give to you, Sir."

That was how Sokka's trip back to his friends began. A letter and a carriage ride from hell that started with the weirdest of orders and predictions.

Though Shin had departed before Sokka awoke, he had procured a carriage and a special driver for him. Sokka didn't understand the importance of the driver, but he understood the importance of the carriage. He was making good time. They were known for their speed and were usually seen as mail curriers rather than a public transport. The speed they made was good, the large animals that pulled it being much larger than the normal ones that the landscape whizzed by at alarming speeds. Sokka wondered for a moment how fast they were going before putting it out of his mind.

The letter was what had him worried though. Shin had stated that his friends would be at the pit, not all of them would be there, but the ones he needed to meet were there. He wondered just how he knew that. Did Shin get regular updates from the Assassins that traveled with them, or was he just good at reading people? He didn't know nor care for the moment. What he cared about was getting to his friends in one piece.

Following the instructions of the letter, he reached down to the floorboard and removed the first two wooden boards. They had bumped the entire way so far and were easy to lift up. The ground rushed beneath him and a moment of fear passed through him. If Shin was trying to get him killed he was certainly doing it right. The ground was anything but flat. It was jagged and on more than one occasions did he notice a rock that would have, if he hadn't already started to follow the instructions per the letter, killed him or at the very least mortally wounded him.

With a quick glance back at the driver through the small crack the carriage had, he dove under the frame and held himself tightly to it.

The instructions were bizarre to him. If the others were here, which he figured Naruto would be, the driver, and the carriage, were about to come under attack. Shin wrote that Naruto was very protective and took his job very serious when it mattered. This would count as a serious time. The Avatar was busy contending with a trapped soul, one in which wouldn't move on. How Shin knew this, Sokka didn't know. Shin's foresight was scary. If he got this right he'd have to thank the man personally for saving his life.

Holding onto the opening he created and placing his legs on the bar that ran the back of the carriage, he was easily propped up to avoid the gravel beneath him. He only feared for the rocks that may come up to greet him.

The animals suddenly howled and the carriage jerked once. Sokka barely caught a glimpse of steel as it passed clean through the carriage and cut the roof off. While the carriage was still in motion, the roof was torn off with a spray of blood following almost instantly. Sokka never had time to scream in fear for what he saw as the head of the driver fell backwards and onto the cushions of where he had once been seated.

The carriage jerked in one direction once, then twice, and then finally tilted sideways as it jack-knifed to the left and flipped it. Sokka screamed for his life as he held on for dear life. It rolled; crunching the thing into a flat hunk of wood as it was torn apart by the forces at work on it. It was shredded and offered little remorse as it flung Sokka to the side like a ragdoll. His body flew through the air, hit the ground with a thud, and then sent him sprawling out onto the ground in a roll that turned into a slide. His pants were ruined and his wounds, what few cuts he still had from his fight with Shin, reopened.

But he was alive. That was what really counted here in his book.

Sokka placed both hands on the cold earth and pushed himself up to his knees. The very action hurt him more than the beating he took from Shin it seemed. Then again, Shin had never dragged him along the ground or thrown him through the ground like the wreck had. He needed to make a mental note to never listen to that man.

"Sokka?"

The youth turned and nearly fell back to the ground. Naruto was partially covered in blood and seemed to be surprised and angry with his arrival.

"If I had known that was you I would have avoided trying to cut the thing in half and kill everyone inside it. I'm sorry for doing that. Are you okay?"

"Only my pride is hurt," he joked half-heartedly. Naruto nodded in understanding and decided to lend the teen a hand. "Shin sent me with a warning for you guys. Where's Aang?"

"Down in the pit speaking with the soul or whatever it is." Naruto waved a hand dismissively. "What's the problem?"

"A Fire Nation Assassins is coming after us. He said you'd understand the message I gave." Naruto waited patiently. Sokka took a deep breath and then repeated the warning. "Third Eye is coming for you guys. You better get a move on." Naruto blinked and then sighed. "What does it mean?"

"The man that's targeting us just happens to be a former member of the Assassins. He was the original Rank Four Assassin before Reaper took it over. He's a tough son of a bitch. We have to get a move on. We can't waste anymore time around here or he'll have the advantage. And if he's targeting us, there's a chance that means his true target is Aang; which means that we've either been spotted or someone just knows that Aang is here and has no idea where he is or why he's here." The blond turned and started walking for the pit. "Katara is with Aang right now along with the original. I have to remain up here to provide look out. Go down and report to the original me. He'll want to know about this."

Sokka nodded and began his decent.

It didn't take the young teen long to find the center. He ran through the pit of swords, ignoring them all until he was at the very heart of the pit where Aang was located. He was talking to himself or to something unseen. Naruto and Katara were near him, but weren't speaking with him. That was just further proof that he was talking with something unseen to them.

"Naruto," Sokka called out. He knew that the blond probably already knew about the current situation that they were in. "We've got problems." He relayed the message again and then noted the alarm that the Assassin had. "I'm guessing we need to get a move on?"

"You have no idea." Naruto reached out and touched Aang's shoulder. "We're out of time. We have to go. Now."

"Just one more minute." Naruto sighed and tried to argue the point but soon realized how idiotic it was. Aang went back to speak with the soul. "You asked me what I would do to end the war. I have an answer for you." Aang took a deep breath. "I'll defeat the Fire Lord by any means necessary."

Though the soul couldn't be seen or heard, the reaction that the others had to Aang's words were more than a match for the bound soul.

_Aang would kill the Fire Lord if he had too, _Sokka realized. That made a lot of sense. What other way was there to end the war anyways? The Fire Lord couldn't be reasoned with. He would never stop until he was satisfied with the destruction of all other Nations. But the way that Aang presented that told him that Aang had never been sure on what he was going to do? Did that mean that when he beat the Fire Lord during the invasion that he was going to spar him because he couldn't take the life of another directly?

To Aang, the soul seemed annoyed by his answer. _**"So does that mean you are embarking on the path of blood now?"**_

Aang visibly turned his nose up at that. "I'm only going to kill the Fire Lord. The rest of the Nation isn't evil. They're just following the orders of a mad man. They aren't evil?"

"_**Haven't you learned anything, traitor Avatar? Those are just words. And even if you just killed the Fire Lord, do you think that the war would seriously end right then and there? A new leader would be selected, one who may or may not be stronger or malevolent then he? You will only help them by killing him. It will fuel their ever growing rage to the point that not even the fires of Hell could compete against them. They will become stronger than ever and take their revenge on the world. In order to stop this from happening, you must kill them all as well."**_

"No. I can't kill an entire race. That's not in me."

"_**Yet they did it to your people with little care. Why spar them the pain that you went through?"**_

"Why not?"

"Aang. We have to go. Now!" Naruto made his presence known by grabbing Aang up by the arm. "We have a serious problem right now. We can't stay and ideally chit-chat with something that clearly doesn't want to move on."

Aang tore his arm out of his grasp. "Just give me one more minute. There's something I want to know." Aang turned back to the soul and stared at him with hard eyes. "If the war won't end with the fall of the Fire Lord, how can it be ended without genocide?"

"_**Understanding others would be one way, but no one wants to do that anymore." **_Aang was happy to hear that method, but sad to know that it wasn't an option. _**"There are very few ways to end a war, and most of them all end in a bloodbath. This war will be no different. If I leave you with some parting words, it is that you never take life for granted. We, the dead, wish to live and look down on those who still live with so little care for others. That is the path the Fire Nation has taken. They will burn this world to the ground with little care for the backlash it will create. I doubt they are even aware that when they have conquered the entire world they will wither away. War has made them what they are now. Once the wagon of war ends, they will suffer from an economical backlash that will leave them vulnerable to others. And if that doesn't do it, then they will be at the risk of killing each other for the lands that they gave to their generals and political leaders. This war, should you fall and the Fire Nation take over everything else, will turn on them and they will soon be fighting each other. Human greed does that."**_

Aang nodded in understanding. He couldn't believe that he was even agreeing with him considering that something this serious. Maybe he was right. Maybe there really was something to what the soul was talking about. Sure he was strange and evil, but he had a deeper understanding the world then he did.

"But if I do succeed, what will happen then? If the war won't end just because I defeat the Fire Lord, what will happen to the world? Will it still fall into the path of destruction? What if we lose and are pushed back? If that happened, I'd be forced to wait until I get another shot at him."

"_**Answer this. Are you just going to sit back and what for someone to defeat him, then? Who? You think that if you wait someday the right chance will finally come? Don't be naïve. If you don't act now, that day will never come. If you want to change the world you have to do it yourself."**_

"You're mad to think that I would turn my back on the world now after all the pain I've caused it. I won't turn my back on the world anymore. I will fix things. I'll make it right and set the world back on the track it was meant to stay on."

The soul stared at him for a moment before his eyes flickered as if he recognized something from his past. Maybe he was deep in thought.

"_**Do as you see fit. I care not for the status of the world. I only care for revenge." **_

"That's wrong."

"Aang," Naruto snapped. "We don't have any more time. We're leaving now." He grabbed his arm and tugged at the bald teen. Aang fought him for a moment until he noticed Sokka. He was nodding worriedly. "Aang, a Fire Nation Assassin is on his way to destroy us. We don't know where he's at. We have to get a move on right now."

The soul released an evil chuckle. _**"Do as you please, traitor Avatar. Run and hide. You're good at that."**_

Aang turned to argue with the soul but it was already gone. With a depressing sigh he turned and finally acknowledged Sokka.

"What happened to you?"

Sokka sighed. "I got my ass kicked. Now let's go. If this guy is as scary as what Naruto says, I don't wanna be here when he shows up. You can even fill us in one what you've learned on the way."

They climbed out of the pit and mounted Appa. Naruto destroyed his clones and gathered their knowledge. He apologized to Sokka for what one of the clones had done and decided to just start explaining Third Eye to them. The conversation was short and to the point.

Third Eye was one of the Top Ten Assassins, but he had betrayed the order long ago for money and power. While Katara got some kick out of it, Sokka and Aang didn't. They had all seen Reaper in action. As the active Rank Four Assassin, she was scary and obviously worthy of the title. If this Third Eye person was a former holder of the title, he had to be just as scary and powerful as she was. And that wasn't even the start of their worries. He had led operations so dangerous it was miraculous he survived. Been pitted against the toughest of opponents this war had to offer. He single handedly broken a battalion on his own. He was the stuff of legends.

But for all the good he did, his hunger for power and money drove him insane and he turned to the ways that weren't of their order. He started siding with the Fire Nation, as they paid better. And soon, after the deaths of the previous Rank One and Five Assassins, it was officially declared that he had turned on them.

"We led an operation to kill him. Zentrai and I weren't the acting Rank One and Two Assassins at the time. The Rank One title hadn't been filled yet. The Rank Two Assassin at the time went with us. We were chosen because out of all the other Assassins present, we were the only ones in any sort of shape to deal with him. Sadly, however, he got away. But not before Zentrai managed to cut off his right arm and leg. As a result he's gotten metallic limbs in their place."

"So how dangerous is he to us?" Aang asked.

"Pretty dangerous," Naruto admitted warily. "If you had ever met the guy you'd know why he's dangerous. He doesn't say much, but it's his Firebending abilities that are scary. He's a long-range support fighter. His Firebending is focused around pinpoint explosions. I'm not sure on how it all works, but the jest of it is that he shoots a focused point of fire that rapidly expands where he needs it to. The expansion is so fast and powerful that it works like an explosion. If he's got high-ground on you, you're screwed."

"Sounds like a tough guy. And you said Zentrai managed to cut two limbs off? How come you couldn't kill him?" Sokka asked.

"The Rank Two Assassin was killed during the fighting. I was pretty badly messed up. And Zentrai… well… let's just say that it was the closest he had ever come to death. But that was back then. We haven't seen him since and for all we know, he might have gotten weaker. We kept getting reports on him, but nothing solid. He seems to have quieted down a great deal until this. If he is after us, then we need to be prepared for a major battle with him. We'll also have to stay one step ahead of him at all times. He's not the smartest tool in the shed, but that doesn't make him stupid."

"So he betrayed you guys for money and power?" Aang repeated that again and felt like throwing up. That really left a bad taste in his mouth. "I wonder what would have happened to him if he had just stayed with you guys. It's hard to believe he's doing this for all of that. I mean, doesn't he realize he's fighting for the wrong side?"

"Sides don't matter to him. Money is about the only thing that does matter to him."

"War doesn't determine who's right. Only who's left, Aang." Sokka whispered quietly.

Aang was left somewhat confused by his statement but understood the jest of it. If war only determined who was left, then what was the whole point in fighting anyways? Was fighting the only answer the people could come up with? Or was it really just as the soul had said and that human greed spawned all of these things? He wished he knew the answer. He wasn't greedy, yet he was human. But in the grand scheme of things; one person didn't amount to much in that field.

(-)

"You guys will stay here and wait for our return."

Naruto told them that. Zentrai wasn't about to disobey orders, but he was bored. Boredom for him was a terrible thing. It made him do stupid things. It was beyond the normal stupid that most people saw him do, but it wasn't anything crazy. During Naruto's time knowing the man, he had pulled some strange stuff, but when he was bored it went from strange to just bizarre.

In the last few days since their departure, Lyra, Zentrai, and Toph had done very little other than eat, sleep, drink, and occasionally talk. Toph learned a great deal about the two Assassins that had stayed with her. While she wasn't one to care, she did have a certain longing with Zentrai. He was as free as the wind itself. She wanted that freedom, but she wanted to bask in it in the presences of her family to show them that she wasn't helpless. He was everything she wasn't.

And Lyra was a proud woman. Despite all their shortcomings, their arguments, their witty banter, the two were deeply connected. Their connections ran deeper than any ocean and it made Toph wondered if they were secretly lovers. It wouldn't be that far of fetched given their actions to one another. She kept him in line. He tried to make her more free spirited.

Toph idly wondered just what it was about the two that made her see them as a family now. It could have been because of the pain, sweat, and tears that he shed during their battle in Ba Sing Se before it fell. Or it could have been their bizarre ways of dealing with others and all situations. She knew that despite all their warnings, empty or not, they were serious about one thing: Protecting Aang.

Toph had lived a sheltered life, and thus, knew very little on the war outside of what gossip she got. How many times had she even heard about a village or a city falling to the Fire Nation? She wondered if that had been the same story over and over again, just repeated and made to sound better than the previous version.

"How much longer until the others get back, you think?"

Toph shrugged. Lyra was getting fidgety. That spooked her a little.

"No idea."

She went back to playing with her captured toy. It was Zentrai's slinky. While she enjoyed playing with the thing, mostly because she could do something he couldn't. She only did it to annoy him. Since he couldn't Earthbend like she could, he couldn't make the endless flight of stairs that she had created by Earthbending the ground at the last second to keep it from stopping. She was currently holding out pretty well with it.

Zentrai snorted. _"Knowing Naruto as well as we do, he's probably already on his way back with them. If I'm guessing right, he left last night. Naruto doesn't like to make people wait. He strived to be different from his original teacher. His name was Kakashi. He was a great teacher, apparently. Lazy as sin though."_

Toph chuckled at the idea of that. Naruto was always on time it seemed from the stories they shared. So for him to have a teacher that was always late and he still showed up on time was pretty amazing. One would have thought that he would have become lazy, if not for the fact that his own teacher was lazy, but also to get back at said person.

"_Though, I think Naruto is lazy as well, but not for the man who once taught him. I think that he is lazy in a way that's not something we could understand. I mean, Naruto is unique. He's not truly lazy, but he has some moments where he is lazy. I mean, a year ago he had gotten lazy by deciding to evade everything concerning the world for a while. He was tired of fighting and I think he even lost his reason for it. So since he stopped fighting he decided to actually be lazy. Though that backfired on him. He got caught by the previous Rank One Assassin. He was a heartless bastard and basically beat the shit out of Naruto to get him back on track."_

"But you said Gen Fu was the last one that had been the previous Rank One Assassin." Toph asked.

"That is true. But to be honest, I can't remember telling you that. The one after him was a heartless bastard. He held the title for only a couple of months and was never fully seated as our leader. He merely held the title as Rank One Assassin." Lyra explained carefully. She wondered how Toph knew that. Sure they were rather open about a few things, their dead leaders being one thing, but the Gen Fu was a special person to them. They would never do him wrong and state something false or horrible about him. "I'd ask how you know that, but it doesn't really matter."

The blind youth shrugged. "Honestly, I forgot who told me."

"_It was me who told you, Toph." _Lyra cut her eyes to the former leader. _"And it's as you said, Lyra, that's in the past. What I did was to establish a trust with them. I told them about us so that they would understand where our loyalty stood for the time being. As heartwarming as it was to finally have their trust, our orders changed a great deal when the invasion was planned. We are only to protect Aang."_

"Meaning you shouldn't be here right now with me." Toph had a smirk on her face. As much as she wanted to see their reactions to her words, she was happy she couldn't. She figured they'd be nodding or merely smiling. "If you wanna leave me behind, go ahead and leave me."

"We won't leave you behind because there is no point in it. Naruto and the others are on their way back right now. I'm sure that in a matter of hours they will return to us and we will depart." Lyra paused and glanced at the sky. "Toph, I have a question. What will you do when the war is over? Will you return to your family? Or will you stay and hide from them?"

The blind girl that of an answer before speaking. "Not sure."

"_Not much of an answer. But I understand." _The mute stood up and walked towards the shade of a nearby tree. _"A hundred years of fighting is all we have ever had to endure. We have never been given a chance to truly live in the real justification of the word. But at the same time we have all lived. That very word has more meanings that even the largest of words or sentences people can make. To live is to be what you want. To live is to live. To live is to be happy. Living comes in many forms, but it is the human heart that compels us to do it as we see fit."_

"How very philosophical of you."

"_Philosophical or not, those words are true. So for some of us, living is being on the battlefield." _

"As sad as that is, it is the wrong way to live."

"_And yet even though we could argue pointlessly over such a thing, we do it anyways. Even commoners and nobles have grown up during a time of war. So I wouldn't be surprised if the reason you're family saw you as a helpless little girl was only because they thought your blindness prevented you from becoming something great that could take of itself. In that ideology they would see you simply as a weakling and a failure that they want nothing with. Yet obviously if that were the case they would have done away with you. So that begs the question of why they haven't. I think the answer is obvious."_

"Your father or mother are probably partial infertile. They can't have any more children, probably. Meaning that even though you are blind you are the only heir to the Bei Fong family. That is why he can't look past your blindness."

"Even if that's true, why do you think they would get rid of me?"

"_Do you know that most children that are born that have a disability are killed off? I would have been killed off had I been born in a different situation of life. When people are born without an ability, let's say the ability to see or speak, they are often seen as a failure. They give them a set amount of time to see if they are worthy of holding their own in this life. If they cannot they are killed off. If the parents aren't able to sire another child then they are forced to take the child they have and make something of it."_

"Sounds retarded."

"_It is retarded."_

"This is the power of the human heart. Nobles think only of themselves. Commoners will huddle together and work with what they have. If you want to live in this world you must fight to survive. In an ideal world you wouldn't have to fight to survive. And if that were the case, the world would be easier to get along with."

"Of course it would be." Toph answered with a grin. Lyra snickered and then turned to the sky. Toph saw her actions through the vibrations that were created by the small movements she had and smiled. "So if I return to my family, do you think they would do away with me for rebelling against them? Or do you think that they will accept me for all of my greatness I have achieved by rebelling against them?"

The two Assassins shrugged and then smiled. Toph was proving to not just be a fighter but also a well-endowed thinker. Clearly being the daughter and heir of the Bei Fong family taught her well. She could probably put up a good argument on politics with the best of them. Maybe she couldn't hold her own in a one on one duel of words, but there was no one that could argue that her skills as a fighter outweighed her abilities in politics.

After a dozen hours of waiting they were finally greeted by Naruto and the others finally showed up. Though Naruto was quick to act on trying to get the others to depart, they still had other problems to deal with. Toph wanted answers from Sokka. Katara needed to finish healing Sokka as his wounds had re-opened during the flight back to the others. And in Sokka's current condition it was also impossible to leave at their current status, let alone transport everyone and everything via air. Ground departure was out of the idea. So they were stuck where they were for the time being. It would be hours before they were ready to leave.

(-)

Zuko was ready for the worst of things. Bad things always happened to him. When he was ready for them to go bad they went good for him. When they went good they turned bad for him. It was a never ending cycle of destruction and pain for him. If he got one thing he got another.

It all started when he was banished by his father. The cycle started there. He had defied his father. He had gone against a general and voiced his concern about life and how they were going through away lives that had placed their trust in them. Was it so wrong to speak up in their favor, for people that he knew nothing of? Was he really in the wrong? Even his father had wanted to get rid of them as a ploy to lead a sneak attack on the enemy.

The next thing that had chipped away at his preverbal armor he had from being Royalty. He had let it chip away unknowingly and had been subjected to humility like no other. Time and time again he had fought and lost against the Avatar. His shame grew from his fights with him. Time after time he lost to the Avatar and the pain it inflicted on him. With each defeat he was subjected to, the humility grew and the armor he had begun to fall apart.

His third and final moment had been created through his own actions. He had come to crossroad in life where it was finally, in a preverbal sense, in his hands. He had come to the ultimate crossroad where loyalties lie and an answer to his pain was answered. He chose to follow his pride and honor. He sided with his sister and helped to destroy the Avatar. He, with the help of his sister and her traitorous Earthbenders that followed her, brought down the walls of Ba Sing Se.

In doing so he had betrayed the one person who had supported and loved him. He betrayed his uncle for a corrupted power and a chance at happiness that would never be real. He gave up the real thing for an illusion that he longed to be real.

The prince glanced out the window of his room and looked up at the stars. He had thoughts of turning to his uncle again and pleading for help, but he understood now that once again the choice was his. He lacked the understanding of each side's true value though. On one hand he an army at his disposal with what he could do as he pleased. His father would head his requests so long as they were understandable and workable. He had a place to call home with servants that bowed to him and did everything for him. But the flipside to that was that he had grown use to not having such a thing. So it was now alien to him to have something that he had once had taken away from him returned to him and for not fulfilling his duties and living up to the challenges that were inset by his banishment. He had not brought the Avatar to the Fire Nation in chains.

But the other side to this coin was that he could leave and fight against the Fire Nation. He had seen it all. The pain they had inflected upon the world. He had seen what the people had turned into. They feared for their lives. They lived each day like it was truly their last. They believed in the hope of the Avatar. They clung to him and prayed for change. He could go to them. Help the Avatar. Reestablish the balance that had long since been lost. But the price, even to him someone as him who had fallen so far, was too great for him to chance. What gain could he possibly attain from leaving now? The Fire Nation controlled the entire world almost.

He glanced at the cause of his pain now. A letter that had been written to him in hidden ink only to show in the presence of a flame.

He knew his uncle was behind it. Who else could have known and sent this to him to help him along? Certainly his sister wouldn't have done. The Assassins wouldn't have done it either. He made his choice. He was certain that when the time came, they'd strike him down.

But the knowledge of what had transpired so long ago had begun to plague him. His great-great grandfather had started the war. He had watched as his best friend, Roku, was killed beneath the power of a volcano on his home island. And thus began the war that caused all of the pain. Sozin had been smart and hit the Air Nomads first, but in doing so had disrupted the balance of the world. He spent the last of his years searching in vain for the Avatar that had eluded him. And now, with all the sins resting on the Fire Nation, he wondered why he felt this way.

He stood up, grabbing his cloak and marching to the door. It was swung open before he could reach it. Mai stood in his presence with a neutral expression. Seeing the cloak he now wore, her expression changed to one of fear and worry.

"I need answers."

"For what questions?"

Zuko stared at her. _Has she come to stop me, _he wondered. "I need to know why I feel this way. You remember how I said I was angry at myself and I didn't know why. I think I know someone who might have an answer now. I want to know why I feel this way." He walked past her. Zuko never noticed the tear that slid down her face.

(-)

"Are you sure we'll be safe here?"

Aang gave Katara a quick glance. She was rattled by his sudden change. Maybe it wasn't a sudden change. The story of the child that took over for Xin Toju was a sad one. He had promised to tell them later. But never seemed to come for them. He had avoided the topic altogether. And now Katara was worried not only for him but for all of them.

"This place should be fine." Lyra's smile was obviously fake, and Katara could see through it. They had spoken against this from the very start. They had wanted to continue traveling for their safety. Whoever Third Eye was he was obviously someone they feared. "Though I do wish we could have continued, I am not above resting in this area. It will serve us well."

"Tactically we're on the low ground," Sokka retorted. "If we're attacked from the ridge above us, we will be at a disadvantage."

"So you agree to change to our vote. We did vote on this." Sokka snorted.

Yes. It had all come down to a vote that the Assassins lost. Toph hadn't sided with them. Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph were against pulling an all-nighter. Instead they had wanted to rest in the trenches where water ran through in a small stream. They could easily catch fish in the morning and drink clean water as well. But the disadvantages outweighed the advantages to having such a thing.

"I'm not changing my vote. I'm merely pointing it out." He turned back to his task of setting up his sleeping bag.

"Regardless of what you want, we are going to be leaving in a few hours." Naruto gave a nod to the mute. Zentrai was already starting to scan the area. He had slept on their way over here. Naruto had slept as well. They would take guard duty for the night and wake them up before sunrise to leave under the cover of darkness. "My clones and I will guard this place as best we can. But should an enemy make itself known you must hurry and pack up immediately."

"You almost make that sound you're expecting us to get attacked."

Zentrai smirked. Toph was pretty bright. _"We are expecting an attack. If Third Eye is really targeting you, Aang, he won't stop until he finds you. He has the resources to make it happen. As a former member of the Assassins, he was the scariest of all of them. Not even Reaper can compare. His power was without question. The only thing keeping him from attaining a higher rank was his methods." _

"Now get to sleep. We depart in a few hours."

The Rank One Assassin departed and created his max of clones before setting up a primitive defense. Zentrai would scan for enemy thoughts while Naruto and his clones watched for anything that might head their way. While it was very dark, Naruto was very certain that if anyone wanted to truly try anything on them they'd hit them from the rear where they came from. But Third Eye was very hard to predict. His attacks had always been based off of what his opponents did. Naruto knew that Zentrai was thinking the same thing as he was. If Third Eye knew they were protecting him then he'd clearly attack from a point where he had superiority. And there were only two places he could attack from. One from the rear and one from above.

Hours passed before their attacker appeared. Naruto was the first to realize it when one of his clones was destroyed by a rapidly expanding ball of light. It was clearly an attack by Third Eye.

Zentrai sensed him next. Naruto's thought and memories he got from the destroyed clone also helped him in finding him. He was quick to zone in on the spot where the clone had been and found Third Eye as he made his approach.

"Guys," Toph scampered to her feet while alerting them. "You're all gonna think I'm crazy… But it feels like a metal man is coming this way."

"_Ironically, you're not crazy. Hurry up and get on Appa. We have to get out of here right now." _

The cliff they slept in the shadow darkened before lighting up. The last of Naruto's clones had just been destroyed. What little information they obtained before death was meaningless. They already had his position. He attacked them out of sport and the idea that they were the real him.

The youths quickly began getting their things together. Sokka was rolling up his sleeping bag while Katara put out the fire that they had been using to help keep warm. Toph got ready with Lyra just in case since she could offer more on the battlefield then in helping them load stuff up.

"It's going to take a few minutes to get Appa's saddle on." Aang informed them. "How much time do we have before he shows up?"

The earth ruptured overheard and slowly began to fall towards them. Lyra and Toph turned and shoved the falling earth away by creating a ramp that slide the earth over the others and formed a small barricade to protect them.

"_Obviously, we're out of time." _The mute smiled. _"Sigma may have been a bastard, but he was our former leader. Even though he held the title for only a short time and was never truly recognized for it, he was someone worthy of his title. Even if we hated him dearly, it looks like we can't avenge him even today."_

"You say that as though you want to avenge Sigma." Naruto smiled though. Another shot at Third Eye was something he wanted. He didn't look kindly to traitors. People who betrayed others for money or power for no reason were the kind of people he truly despised.

"We're all set!"

"Right," Naruto muttered. He nodded to the Rank Two and Three Assassins. They quickly turned and began getting ready to mount Appa when Third Eye finally appeared over the edge of the earth. Naruto laughed. "You certainly haven't changed a bit, Third Eye. Though I don't recall you having those shiny limbs."

Third Eye was a tall man with clean shaven head and a tattoo between his eyes. He looked mean and with a clawed metal hand and a metal boot in replace for the lost limbs, it made the image complete. Third Eye, the former Rank Four Assassin, had arrived.

Naruto smiled at him and flexed his sword arm in preparation for an attack. Third Eye took a deep breath, sucked in his gut, and then threw his chest and head forward. Naruto watched with a smile as a single stream of smoke accelerated for him from Third Eye's central tattoo. The Rank One Assassin thrust his sword forward with little concern and darted under the projectile with inhuman speed. Third Eye was prepared and fired straight down as his first shot struck the sword and detonated prematurely. The sword shattered into a million pieces and peppered the landscape in debris.

The second shot struck the ground right in front of the blond. Naruto was thrown back from the force of the blast. Although he was mere meters apart, it was the shockwave alone that had sent him sailing backwards and straight for the others.

Third Eye prepared to fire again when his metal fist came up and punched him right in the jaw. _"Why are you hitting yourself, Third Eye?" _The man roared in his mind and snapped a curse. _"Naruto, get back over here. We're out of here." _The blond grumbled but complied. A senseless fight with him was out of the question.

Naruto quickly mounted the Flying Bison while Zentrai kept Third Eye contained. While he could have clearly killed him, it would have served as a terrible thing. He had been ordered by someone to kill them. And while killing him would prove effective in the long-run, they all knew that they simply couldn't do that. If he was to report to someone then his death now would result in the conclusion that they were here. But if they didn't kill him, he would tell them anyways. Naruto was only letting this go now under the knowledge of how Third Eye worked.

He wouldn't tell anyone that the Avatar was here because that would have others targeting the Avatar as well. Plus, he was a man that believed in client rights. If he alerted the world that the Avatar was here, his client would be in danger. That would mean he wouldn't get paid. So for the time being they were safe in letting him live. He would forever chase them until he had them in his hands and had given them to his client.

"That was random."

"No it wasn't," Lyra snapped. "He's targeting all of us for sure. But something was up with him."

The mute laughed. _"It looks like his digressed in power. I remember a time when he could have easily crushed us. But it seems he no longer has that power anymore. It's obvious that my poisoned weapons got to him during our bout some time ago. It's damaged his ability to speak and see. But he remains loyal to his clients. He won't talk. At least not until he's aware he needs help. I'm just happy that we can take him on so easily. But still…"_

"He was a long-range specialist. Even if we can take him easily now in close range, he's still got the advantage." Naruto grumbled a curse at this. Though they were his words, he hated them immensely. "We can't stay in Fire Fountain City for very long. We'll have to keep going once we get our supplies. No funny business either."

"We need to make a stop at Roku's island, though." Aang cut in. The three Assassins shot Aang a dirt look. "We don't have a choice in this. Roku has promised me answers. In what few hours of sleep I got, he told me he'd give me the answers to the questions I now have about him and the war. The soul that I spoke with me told me that Roku had betrayed everyone by not doing fulfilling his duty as the Avatar. Roku wishes to give me those answers now. We're heading for his home. It's on the way, anyways."

The three shared a quick look. Sokka nodded. "We have time. It won't take us long to get there and it's on the way. Either way, it's a good place to probably lay low for a while."

"Or we could simply continue on our path to the rendezvous point," Lyra suggested.

"_No." _The mute smiled. _"I for one would like to know why Roku vanished. And if your memories are correct on this soul, then it makes me question Roku as well. You have my vote in this, Aang. I want answers as well. If Roku really did see the war coming, it's time we found out why he didn't stop it." _

Aang smiled. One battle won. He changed course and began the trip to Roku's island. It was time to understand his past.

A/N

First off, this is the conclusion of To Understand. I broke it down into two chapters because it would have made the last chapter about fifty thousand words long. I for one have always been someone that wants to get everything out in one chapter if I can. Length is not important to me. If a chapter can be done in five hundred words it is done so long as it covers all areas I wanted to hit. But I have also learned that what I like is not what everyone else may like as well. So for that I broke the chapter down into two chapters.

Now, Third Eye, if you haven't already guessed, is Combustion Man. I gave him a background befitting him for the story because his random appearance and inability or unwillingness to speak never appeased me. So I've given him a chance.

Also, this is not a Toph X Zentrai (OC) pairing. Since Toph is blind she wants to the see the world through normal eyes and be accepted by her family for who she is. Zentrai is free spirited. She was chained down by her family and shielded from the world because her family saw her as a helpless little girl. That is why she, in some sense, idealizes Zentrai.


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 23

"Xin Toju wasn't a hero like the people claimed him to be." Aang informed Naruto.

The Elite Assassin sighed as Aang continued his story on the events that had led to the soul's entrapment.

Xin Toju was a heartless man. His actions were noble and his heart pure, but his methods were the worst. A tactical genius in battle, he spent countless lives in the pursuit of destroying his enemy. He threw them away without mercy or remorse. He lied to their faces and slew anyone that dared oppose him. He was without equal on the battlefield because of his tactics. What he had done was unforgivable, but in times of war it was necessary to make tough choices. Some could do it better than others. Xin Toju just happened to be the kind of man that would sacrifice anything to achieve his goals, even his own family.

The soul had never given his name, but he had known Xin Toju. The man had been nice when they were in the village. He never seemed like the cold blooded demon that he was. Naruto wondered if it had just been an image he had wanted to uphold to let people know that he was doing this for them. If that was the case, then why had he done the things he had done. It was pretty clear. Everyone needed heroes to give them hope. His actions were covered up by the highest of powers all to boost moral which had been plummeting. His actions, so outlandish as they were, had been covered up to save his name and honor just to make everyone fight harder.

Naruto had to admit that the man had the right ideas. What were the lives of a few men when compared to hundreds more? He was sickened to know that he thought like that, but war was terrible. It twisted good men into bad people. It tore at him like a preverbal hot knife through butter. Xin Toju, for all his malicious deeds, was a hero. He gave the boy the armor and his life all in the hopes of getting one last victory. He sent the boy to his death knowing that they would lose. He bet everything on the hope that his appearance on the battlefield would make his men, his soldiers, fight with a passion never before seen by the Fire Nation. He achieved that part of the goal. His men, tired and hungry and wounded, fought on for three hours before the last one fell in battle. And the boy, scared out of his mind or possessed by some wicked Spirit, fought like a possessed being with strength and skill not his own.

Aang said that when the soul began talking about that part he could believe him. He, too, had once been possessed by a Spirit and fought like a demon against the invading armies of the Fire Nation. He felt powerful and unstoppable. He single-handedly broke their ranks and sent them packing. So for the soul to be possessed by something, wicked or not, had not been impossible.

The soul had fought for thirty minutes before he was used up. Near dead by his wounds, he finally gave in. He killed so many men that his entire body, despite the rain, seemed soaked to the core with blood. All the life had left his eyes. He remembered raising his swords and cursing the Spirits and the Avatar for abandoning them and letting this happen. He cursed so many people, but none more so than Xin Toju and the Avatar. He cursed them and then succumbed to his destiny of death. His sword shattered in his hands as his heart gave out. He himself didn't remember being stabbed by Fire Nation soldiers, but he remembered looking down at his lifeless body that had been run through, but he never remembered being hit.

"And what about Roku? How was he a traitor?"

"Roku said he saw the war coming but decided to spar Sozin since they had once been friends. As strange as that sounded, I think I understand why that soul said Roku was a traitor." The Elite Assassin sighed as Aang went into another long winded explanation.

Aang never once tried to defend Roku's name. Roku had been a wise man and a loving father from the way things sounded. But he had seen the war coming. In fact, he had seen it first hand when Sozin took control of an Earth Kingdom village. He took it over and sat in victory over what had happened. Sozin had given him a chance to join his side and side with his people. He wanted to spread their greatness with the world. So they attacked the Earth Kingdom and began their bloody campaign for only a few months.

Roku found out and quickly returned to the Fire Nation to confront the Fire Lord, his former best friend. A battle ensued that was over before it even begun. As the Avatar he had supreme authority to end Sozin where he stood but let him go in the name of their past friendship. Roku's heart had caused the war. Sozin waited until the right moment to strike. And when he struck, he struck hard.

Roku's home island was a volcano. It had been dormant for years. But it erupted. Whether this was a twist of fate or just bad luck, it erupted into a terrible inferno that spewed lava over the entire place. Roku tried to battle it, but his age caught up with him. Being the Avatar didn't shield him from time. He was mortal. Flesh and blood. He was weak just like the rest of the people he swore to protect. But as he fought endlessly against the blaze to keep what few people remained on the island safe, Sozin showed up.

Roku was happy to see his friend and never once thought about betrayal running through his mind. Together they fought against the volcano and began to win until it got worse. They were forced to retreat. Two of the strongest Firebenders couldn't stop a volcano. They realized that and ran. While departing, Roku was struck by the poison gas that the volcano expelled and was left helplessly on the ground. Roku had reached out to his friend, desperate to be saved. But Sozin refused and told him of his plans.

In the end, Roku died a quick and painless death beneath a landslide of earth and lave with his pet dragon. His actions, his own heart, had caused the war. He had been given a chance to end it before it even began. But he refused. He couldn't bring it about because his heart got in the way. So he had simply taken to watching and praying that his friend would make the right choice. Sadly, Sozin didn't. He went and wiped out the Air Nomads. But, as it was fated, Aang got away and now was here.

"So if he saw this coming and decided against killing Sozin, how does the soul know about it?"

Aang offered a shrug. The soul seemed pretty smart. So what if he just happened to know about that. Did it really matter anyways? He got his answers out of it. What more could he have wanted?

"It doesn't matter anyways. We have more pressing matters to attend to." Aang nodded and stuck his hands in his pockets. "We're running low on funds. Well… you guys are anyways. Seeing as it's our job to make sure you guys can at least eat and all that, we'll get things together for you guys. We won't be paying for all your food, but you get the point I'm trying to make." Aang nodded again. "No the only thing we have to deal with is Third Eye. I just hope that he's not caught up with us yet. Going to Roku's island bought us a window of opportunity to hide again and get to the rendezvous point undetected."

Aang nodded and was about to talk when a loud crack erupted behind him.

"_What did I do?" _Zentrai screamed.

The mute was stumbling backwards with a hand on his red face where a noticeable handprint had been made. Lyra and Katara had a murderous look in their eyes as well. Toph was in a battle stance that clearly showed she had just attacked the mute with Earthbending. The murderous look in her eyes, while mostly ascetic, was very threatening.

Naruto sighed. "What happened?"

"_I have no idea! One minute I was talking to Lyra about this girl had slept with and the next I was getting hit by them! I didn't do anything bad! I swear!"_

"You were looking at Toph's vagina through her clothes. I know how you think when you look at that spot on a girl! With or without their clothes! Pervert!"

"_Now hold on. Let me explain."_

"Kill him!" Katara screamed.

Naruto sighed as Sokka walked up with his sword and nestled down into the shadow of some rocks. The two, minus Aang since he decided to try and play peacemaker, watched as the fight escalated into a full blown war. Three girls fighting one mute, albeit, a powerful Magnetism-Bender, was an interesting thing to watch. Though Zentrai didn't use any of his abilities, it was pretty clear that he wasn't in the wrong. He had probably just been deep in thought.

After fifteen minutes of trying to kill the Rank Two Assassin the fight finally stopped. Toph had managed to get a few lucky hits in and gave him a pretty good shiner on his left eye. Katara had hit him a few times as well, but she had done next to nothing on him outside of tear up his clothes. Lyra had done the most damage. His nose was clearly broken and he had a large lump on the side of his head where she had hit him with a powerful punch.

The mute smiled from behind Naruto. _"Can I explain my reasons now?" _The three girls nodded, though Toph still seemed ready to murder him. _"There was a girl I had slept with about a year ago and she was blind. Anyways, the poor girl never had anyone to help tend to her until I took her to Rehka. She wasn't properly groomed in that area and with Toph being blind I sort of thought she might suffer from the same thing. I mean, no offense to you Toph, but guys don't like it when you pull down their pants and they're greeted by a jungle down there. Not a good thing to have."_

Toph blushed and then snorted. "So you know… My family has nobility. We have people to help groom us if we need it. So I will have someone to help groom _that _part of my body. So don't worry about it. I've got it taken care of."

The mute sighed and got up only to be knocked down by Katara. She still seemed mad.

"You think that just because you gave a crappy explanation we're going to let you go on it?"

"Katara," Lyra began softly. "Zentrai is a great person in many areas. But one of his lacking areas is that when he starts thinking he zones out and isn't actually looking anywhere. He actually just zoning out when he does that. If he's truly thinking hard he does this. So this isn't a problem. I'm used to it. I just didn't know why he was looking at Toph that way and it irked me."

Katara wasn't convinced but let it go. No point in fighting over something like this.

"So now we have a serious situation that we need to discuss." Katara decided to change subject. "We need to get some supplies. We don't have enough for more than another day. And we have very little money to get the stuff we need. So we have to start thinking of a way to get money."

"I can think of a few methods." Lyra put out.

"I have some better ones." Toph stood up from her spot and began making her way into the town. "Zentrai, Aang, and Sokka can come with me. I've got a few ideas on this. I just need them because Sokka has something we can use and Aang might come in useful with his Airbending. And as for Zentrai… well… that's just to please you guys."

Naruto and Lyra shared a quick glance. They were quick to have a silent conversation before agreeing. They nodded in agreement.

"Very well… Zentrai, take good care of them. We'll begin looking out for Third Eye."

"Sparky Sparky Boom Man," Sokka cut in. Naruto sighed. "I like that name better than the other name you guys gave him. And since we're on that subject; what is his real name?"

"_Does it really matter?" _Sokka nodded defiantly. _"Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, Sokka, but one of the interesting rules about the Assassin Organization is that we don't have to give our real names to anyone but our leader, the Rank One Assassins. So even if they gave their name to the Rank One Assassin, that doesn't mean that, they have to give it to us as well."_

"So what about your names? You gave us your names." Katara pointed out.

"That doesn't mean anything. For all you know our names aren't the ones that were given. My name might not be Naruto for all you know. I mean, does it really matter what that bastards name really is?"

"No. We just wanna let you know that we like Sparky Sparky Boom Man more." Toph shoved Zentrai forward with a hard kick to his rear. "Let's get moving. We don't have all day, people!"

The teens chuckled and departed with Naruto staring at them in confusion. Something was wrong here.

As the others departed, Naruto turned and walked towards the lake where Lyra was already searching for the best place to get fish from. She searched the place for two minutes before deciding just sit and wait for something to appear on the surface. For a dozen minutes the two sat in silence before Naruto spoke.

"They're gambling to get money."

"Little bit of a better option when compared to what we would rather do."

"You mean: what we will do." Naruto smiled. "When they return we'll get moving. Zentrai and I'll stay behind to get the money. No doubt what they get won't be enough."

Katara approached them and pulled out a fish with some Waterbending. "So what are you guys gonna do? I know you have a plan."

Naruto smiled. "Yes… I have a plan. But you can't be here for it. It might be too dangerous for you guys." The Rank One Assassin smirked. "Katara, we need money. They're going to go gamble. They're going to cheat the gamblers." The teen chuckled as Katara smiled. "You might as well get your stuff repacked. We'll be leaving soon. I imagine they'll be back in a couple of hours."

"I'll get right on it."

Naruto watched her go with sad eyes before returning his gaze to Lyra. She smiled at him. They had a plan already and with Zentrai out there it was already in play. Now all they had to do was kick back and relax.

(-)

Blindside stood before Topaz as she looked him over. She, like he, was waiting in the main office for orders from Rehka. He was waiting for two things though. She was waiting for her orders. He was waiting for the approval of his selected apprentice. He wondered if she'd even approve of his choice. After all, it wasn't everyday an Assassin got to choose the successor they so happily desired. In some cases they did get to choose, but the final say was often left up to the Rank One Assassin, in this case, Rehka.

The secretary she had smiled at them as she got the knock to allow them entrance. "Rehka will see you both now."

The two rose without a word and marched into the room. Rehka stood behind her desk with her hands behind her back. She was facing towards one of the paintings and marveling at it. The portrait in question was the former Rank One Assassin from two generations ago. He had been nobility and threw it away to lead them. He was a hero to many of the Assassins that aspired to be as powerful as he once was. It was only a shame that his rule had ended short because of an illness he was plagued with.

"Blindside, Topaz… I trust you know why I requested you're presence?" They nodded silently. She didn't need to face them to know their answers. "First and foremost is your mission, Topaz. You are to infiltrate a high value military base near Omashu. The place in question is located just a few miles out of the Western Earth Kingdom Military Fortress. It was run by General Fong, but his goof with the Avatar sealed his fate. He was killed by Ghost not too long ago. I'm sure you remember that mission debriefing so I won't bore you with it."

"So I am to infiltrate this military base?"

"No. The one I want you to infiltrate belongs to the Earth Kingdom that neighbors it. This place is actually used as an outpost to warn them of incoming invasions. They have grown rather large, which isn't uncommon mind you, but Den managed to get some interesting information from two prisoners. They both said that there was a military base there that is under the direct control of one Fire Nation Commander. The entire base, supposedly, belongs to him and is filled with Earth Kingdom turncoats. If this is the case, I want you to kill their leader. Secondary objectives are to find any plans on what they've been doing for the last few weeks."

"Understood, ma'am."

Topaz bowed and departed without bothering to bow to Shin. The swordsman didn't care.

The door snapped shut and Blindside stared at her. She turned to face him and sat down behind her desk. Her hands were resting on top of the folder that contained all the information on his apprentice that he wanted. The look in her eyes told him that she was evaluating him and trying to understand his logic in his choice.

"Why do you want Calamity to be angry with me?"

He smiled. She was asking a question rather than snapping at him. That meant he had a shot.

Calamity, as his code named suggested, was a being of calamity. Like Inferno, he left nothing but death and destruction in his wake. He was part of a specially formed team that had surpassed most other teams. Blindside had no doubt that Calamity's team could utterly destroy him if they wanted to. He couldn't think like Calamity.

Calamity got his name from the destruction he wrought upon an entire Nation. At the age of eight he had single handedly gave the Earth Kingdom an utter defeat so horrid it was laughable. They would never bear the disgrace he gave them. He, a mere eight year old, had made the Earth Kingdom's Generals literally start to tear themselves apart before it was all brought to a close. He simply got bored with turning them into his pawns by having them run around and attack locations where nothing was. He fed the right people the wrong kind of information, made things look like an actual attack was going to take place, and then watched the chaos spread until he grew bored. Calamity was, by all accounts, a tactical genius like no other. He thought two hundred moves ahead of everyone else. He did his research. He knew how to play all the cards he had at his disposal. He could make miracles happen, which had given him another nickname; The Miracle Man.

But Calamity wasn't his true target. Shin didn't want Calamity. He wanted the new recruit that he had gotten not two months ago. Shin knew about him only because of he had personally seen the kid in action once before departing for the Fire Nation. He had been placed inside of Calamity's unit, and in order to get him you had to go through Calamity, who was not someone who gave him his _pieces _lightly.

"You can't have her, Blindside. He belongs with Calamity."

The swordsman grinned. "That's not much of an excuse. As a member of the Top Ten Assassins, I can have anyone I want so long as you approve. You must also have a valid reason for not letting me take said person. Just saying he, or rather, she, belongs to Calamity's unit isn't a good enough reason. Sorry. But you'll have to come up with another reason for why I can't have her."

Rehka gave him a hard glare. He knew more about their laws and acts than she'd ever care to admit. Not even Naruto knew about all the rules they had in play and he was a heavy person in all their meetings and functions. If he stayed in the village he could, by all legal accounts, never return to the battlefield so long as he had a valid reason. But he didn't know about that rule. Zentrai and Lyra knew about it. It was through that rule that Zentrai had been allowed to return to the battlefield during his time as the village leader while leaving Lyra in his stead.

She sighed and chewed on her thumb. "Calamity won't give up one of his greatest fighters. He needs her a lot more than you do. Choose someone else."

"Not going to happen."

She sighed. "As leader I could have you removed for refusing an order given by me."

"True, but this isn't an order. This is a negotiation. You can't order me to do anything until this deal is done." She gritted her teeth. He wasn't going to let this go. He would fight her until the end. "And for the record, the girl in question just happens to be of no use to him. He told me himself."

Rehka smirked. He blinked and then stared at her as she slid a file across the table towards him. Without glancing at it he picked it up and then pretended to skim through it.

"Calamity knew you were coming after his new student so he prepared this for you. He knows that you want Jasmine because she's a clean slate. She has no reason to join the Assassins. Her very life is an enigma to us. Her family is very much alive, but they don't live here. She is too kind and sweet to be an Assassin and she isn't motivated by revenge or hatred, meaning she has no reason to want to join us. That being the case, you want her because you want to train her to be what no other swordsman can be. You want her to be a warrior for the people, just like yourself."

The swordsman snapped the file closed and glared at her. Of course Calamity saw it coming. The man was a genius like no other. He had to have known just what he wanted from the moment he questioned the girl. He did handle most of the paperwork for new members that joined their ranks. It was part of his duty. So when she had joined and Calamity got her, it had been a turning point for him. She was just the kind of person that needed to become a swordsman and Calamity took that chance away from her.

With growing irritation he looked into the file. This person wouldn't reach his quality in what he wanted… or so he believed.

"Her code name is Answerer. She's just the same as Jasmine, only she's actually got some skills in swordsmanship. But her major skills are espionage and hand-to-hand combat. And if you've read her file like you were supposed to when I gave it to you, you'd know that she's already learned what revenge can do. She killed her father's murderer and feels only pain as a result. It didn't bring him back."

"Revenge doesn't bring anyone back."

He gave a quick glance to the file and sighed. She wasn't his ideal choice, but given the fact that she already had a taste for revenge and didn't like it, he could work with her. Her skills weren't great with a sword, but she clearly had some talent otherwise Calamity wouldn't have pulled a stunt like this.

"If I take her, I'm taking only her. I wanted to take Jasmine and Duo since Duo works well undercover. Although I aim to teach them fighting skills with a sword, they won't learn my style directly. I'll teach her in the same way I learned my own so that she can learn and create her own style. But understand this; I don't do this because you benefit from an ass-chewing, Rehka. I'm only doing this because between the two evils I wanted, I'm getting an easier one to work with. One who has tasted revenge and spat it out is better than trying to teach one that hasn't lost anything and tell them that revenge solves nothing."

Rehka smiled. _Just as he predicted. _"You might as well go meet her. She's waiting for you at the bar where the other Top Ten Assassins hang out. Just remember to go easy on her. I know you can be a bit rough."

Blindside nodded and departed with the file tucked under his arm. He had no intentions of giving it back. Thankfully it didn't have her real name in it or she would have gone after him.

(-)

"Settle down, Katara. The others will be here in a minute."

The female Waterbender gave a sharp glare towards the female Assassin before returning to her cooking. It annoyed her to know that they were right. The others had been gone far too long to be getting supplies. So she was quickly becoming worried.

"They're running late. They should have been back by now."

Lyra sighed. She did have a point. But what could she do? Naruto was off doing something on his own again. Whatever he was doing he was doing it on his own again. He hadn't even stated what he had been planning to do. That worried her greatly. Having Naruto run off this way was strange but she had an idea on where he was going and what he was doing.

"They'll be back soon. Trust me on this, Katara. So sit down and just wait for them to show up. Or is that too hard for you to do?" The Waterbender snorted as she continued to stir their food. Lyra sighed and glanced towards the town. _Don't take it too far guys. We have to remain undetected. _The Rank Three Assassin rose up and began getting her stuff together for her departure later.

(-)

After two hours of waiting, Sokka and the others finally returned. Naruto actually appeared about twenty minutes behind them, but that was because he had been off scouting the route ahead and the banks they were going to rob. The others weren't aware of their plans, but it was pretty easy to understand why they had been left out the loop so far. It wasn't that Aang and the others didn't trust them, it was that they just didn't like their methods of doing things. It was a little barbaric to do some of the stuff they did. It was almost as if they were constantly crossing the line between animal and human. It wasn't that there was a line; it was that the line needed to be crossed almost constantly for them.

"So why are we leaving right now? Please remind me." Toph ordered. She munched on her apple and gave a curious glance towards Sokka as he helped in loading up their bags. It was merely ascetic of course, but it got the point across.

Naruto sighed before Lyra cut in. "We're leaving because we have to make up the lost ground from our side trips. If we fall behind any further we'll throw the schedule that Sokka worked so hard to create completely off track. And we wouldn't want to do that." Sokka sighed as he forcefully shoved his sleeping bag into the ties on Appa's saddle. "And as for why Naruto and Zentrai are staying behind; it's because they have to tie up some loose ends."

"You mean get us more money." Aang corrected. Lyra nodded while mounting Appa. "How are they gonna get more money? Rob a bank or something?"

"Something like that." Naruto answered without pause. Toph's hand shot up. "You're not coming. No offense Toph, but you don't exactly scream stealth to me. And we have to do this in such a way that we can pin it on someone else to make it seem like an inside job. We already know who we're pinning it on. The only thing left is to set it up that way. That's why we're staying behind while you guys go on ahead and continue the trip."

"_We'll meet up with you guys in the next village. It's a small one, but I've got a contact there that I've needed to get in touch with for a while. She'll offer you food and lounging for the night. We should be back with you guys by tomorrow night." _The mute tied the last of their bags into the saddle and gave them a nod. _"Get going. You'll wanna get there before dark. And don't worry about us. We can take care of ourselves." _

The others left not long after, leaving Zentrai and Naruto to do their thing. Toph had put up some resistance but had soon decided to go with them once Zentrai threatened to kill her. Against someone that could make metallic weapons float she knew she'd lose.

Once darkness had settled in and Fire Fountain City was fast asleep, they moved in. They had agreed to hit seven banks all at once. Naruto and his clones would each take one of the smaller banks while Zentrai hit the biggest one they had. It was funny to the Elite Assassin that they even had this many banks. But then again, this was one of the major cities that were the furthest cities from the main island. It was also one of the main gambling cities as well.

The two broke paths and soon Naruto had to create some clones. The clones moved out to their intended targets and then began stealing the money inside. The original Naruto moved into a small bank and began his duty rather fast. It was a simple process of sealing the money into a set of scrolls and then worked the information to make it seem like it had been an inside job. The hardest part would be making sure all of his clones made it to him with their scrolls that he had given them for this part of the job.

Naruto finally made it to his target and took over the place with relative ease. He worked fast to get into the bank and began sealing up the money. As part of the agreement they wouldn't take more than seventy-five percent of the money in the banks.

Naruto grabbed dozens of bags of money before sealing them in a single scroll. Naruto moved fast through his bank before setting up the information to make it seem like an inside job. The information was easy. Just a few touches here and a simple piece of incriminating evidence and the job was done. Naruto quickly wrapped things up and headed to the rendezvous point where his clones were waiting for him. Once he made sure the clones had sealed the stuff in the correct scrolls, he waited for Zentrai to show up while looking up at the moon.

Naruto waited in silence with the company of Rai. He soon drifted into his thoughts and thought back to his life in the Elemental Nations where he had come from. Life was almost the same as this life he had now. The only differences between the two worlds were the missions and small difference in technology. Radios would be very helpful to him right now. But then again the enemy might just learn how to tap into them like Kakashi had said often happened on extremely critical Ops. And then there was their medical technology that they had. They had needles and some devices that could tell you a person's pulse and heart rate. They could benefit greatly from having something like that here as well.

But then the similarities were that they were also in a war. Their war had been brutal, but it had never escalated beyond a cold war. They had done missions that involved everything from walking dogs to killing political leaders. This place was similar in that fashion, but that was because they were in the middle of a ragging war. It was painful to admit it, but even he had begun to lose hope over the years of fighting.

"You're late," Naruto finally snapped. Zentrai walked up carrying a large bag of money. Since he had hit the biggest bank of them all on his own he carried around a large bag that would have made Santa Claus jealous. He was smiling like an idiot as well. "Do you want me to seal that into a scroll for safety? It'll make it easy to transport."

"_I got it. Don't worry about it. I know what I'm doing." _

Naruto rolled his eyes. He had doubts on that.

(-)

"She's a Waterbender, just like me. Can't you at least have some joy in my findings?"

Katara snapped at Lyra for her rude behavior concerning Hama. It wasn't that Lyra didn't like her; it was that she just rubbed her the wrong way. It had more to do with the fact that she had seen her… somewhere. She just didn't know where at the moment. It was a bit annoying to be honest for her.

"Katara, shut up. Or I'll kill you. You asked me what I thought about her. I gave you my answer. If you don't like it, deal with it. Or just never ask me a question again. Got it?" Katara stood her ground as the older teen snarled at her and walked away. _The nerve of that girl… _

Toph snickered to get Lyra's attention. "Having trouble dealing with Madam Fussy Britches?"

Lyra cracked a smile at the nickname. She had called Katara that on the way over here before they had been found by Hama.

Toph pushed off the tree she was leaning against and glanced in the direction of the town. Lyra understood that she couldn't see the town the same way she could, but it gave an understanding to what she was talking about when she started talking about something.

"What do you think about the rumors concerning this town? Would a Spirit really take people away? And even so; why would it do it? I don't understand that."

Lyra shrugged. She had no answers for those types of questions. She did believe in Spirits. Naruto's former tenet was proof to her that Spirits, even large beings of supernatural energy, existed in this world. But she never fully accepted them for what they were. They were, in her eyes, just beings that supposedly couldn't be killed. However, she did understand that if you could make them bleed then people would stop believing in them.

"I don't understand it either, Toph. All I understand is that something isn't right with this place. I don't mean the rumors either. Something about Hama really has me on edge. I'm not sure what." Toph nodded mutely and slowly began walking with her towards the Inn. "I just wish I knew who Zentrai had been talking about meeting with. Things might have been easier then."

"Didn't you say that you enjoyed things better when they didn't go right and you had no idea on what was ahead? You said you felt better with things like that." Toph paused and then add; "How can you even say such a thing with your job, anyways? Do you find satisfaction in things failing and so many unknowns out there?"

"I think it has more to do with Zentrai keeping something from me, to be honest. I mean, he said he had a contact here but I would have known about it. He has none on the paperwork, so who could possibly be out here that he knows?"

"Well, Hama could be it?" Lyra considered that and then dismissed it. They had heard her story and there was no way Zentrai could have known her. So that dropped her off the radar.

"Doubtful," was her reply. Toph shrugged and decided that it wasn't her issue anyways. "I'm going to go check on something in the village. I'll be back later."

Toph opened her mouth but soon shut it. Like anything she'd say would detour her from doing what she wanted.

Lyra departed and began walking through the village with great ease. She was trying to figure out who the contact was while Katara spent her time with Hama. She had honestly considered killing the two and just moving on. How could they trust Hama? Hama had lived in the Fire Nation for years and was practically a prisoner still in this land. She couldn't return home. She had been gone for far too long to be welcomed back with opened arms. So why stay here? And then there was the fact that she was overly nice to them. That didn't sit well with her either.

Something really just screamed for them to run away. She had no idea on why, but she felt like being here was a complete mistake.

And Toph's little moment on the hillside didn't make things any better. During their ghost stories Toph had said she felt people moving under them. At first she had played it off like it off like it was some sort of joke, but now she was starting to believe it. Just why would people be hiding under the earth anyways? And how would they get there? And then there was Hama that was a Waterbender. Nothing fit well with her at the moment.

(-)

"I can't see anything that would make a Spirit mad. The entire forest is in perfect condition. I can't feel anything evil in the area." Aang scratched his head. Sokka scratched his head. He wasn't sure what was going on either. "If at anything, this place has probably been cursed by someone that long sense passed. But I don't see that as a possibility."

"So what does that mean? If this place is cursed, does that mean that we're under the curse now?"

Aang thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. That didn't sound right to him.

Sokka sighed and then decided to continue moving through the forest. He was more focused on the other task at hand. He was more focused on trying to figure out why they had been ordered to stop at this place. He knew it was bugging Lyra, but he had no idea on as to why it would bug her this way. Clearly there was something that the others knew that she didn't. But he couldn't wrap his mind around it. Just why would Zentrai and Naruto keep something from her?

They returned to the Inn where Hama was getting ready to start cooking. Katara was helping her with the fire while Toph was kicking a rock around with her feet. She was obviously very annoyed and bored to be kicking a rock around without bending it.

"Where's Lyra?" Aang asked.

Toph shrugged while Katara snorted.

"I don't really care where she's at, to be honest." Aang wanted to say something but soon decided not to as the Waterbender decided to continue her task of helping Hama out. "But you're not going to believe what I've learned from Hama. She taught me different methods of Waterbending that I never thought about. Did you know that you can bend water out of the plants and the air itself? I didn't even think about that."

"That's pretty cool. I never would have thought about that."

The Waterbender smiled and thought about what she would do next. She wasn't too focused on the cooking. After cooking for nearly half a year she had grown used to doing all the cooking. Not once had she seen the others do any of the cooking. It did annoy her that her brother did think it was always her job, namely a women's job, to do all the cooking, but she always got him back.

No. She was more focused on Lyra. The Assassin had been acting strange ever since they arrive at the village. It was almost as though she were on extreme edge. Usually she wasn't this high strung, but today she seemed to be very cautious. She even ordered them to stay out of the village. Of course Katara disobeyed and had yet to be punished. She wondered just when Lyra would find out about that and strike.

"You seem distracted, dear. Is everything alright?" Katara nodded mutely as Hama placed a wrinkled hand on her shoulder. "You seem very distracted, dear. What's wrong? You can tell me if you want."

Katara thought her offer and then smiled. "I'm worried about Lyra. She's an Assassin and she doesn't even let me do anything without shouting at me. She really doesn't want to save people. She'd rather let the innocent die. I just don't understand her at all."

Hama's moment of surprise was short lived. "I see. Well… that makes sense. I mean, the Assassins are very brutal when they are needed. That is the way they have always been. I don't blame them for thinking that way. But, if it makes you feel better, you should know that they are only doing things there way because they look at the big picture. Katara, when you look at the animals around you and kill them, do you take the old ones and the young ones?"

"The older ones. But why do you ask?"

"If the older generation is left after the fighting is over, what do you think will happen when it's all said and done? Do you think that we will simply give up our ways of fighting and return to a normal life that we never knew anything about? Or do you think that we will begin fighting again because that's how we grew up? I know the correct answer, Katara. Even you know the correct answer. It is a good thing that they do what they do. Think of all the suffering that would come from their actions if they saved everyone. They were soon depend on them just like we depend on the Avatar to set things right. It's not wrong to sacrifice people for the greater good. In fact, I think that it is the only way to move forward. When the older generation goes, it will be up to your generation to set things right."

"That's wrong."

"I know it is, dear. But we can't worry about it too much. I mean after all, Lyra is only one Assassin. Even the best of them can only accomplish so much."

Hama smiled and called for the others. Dinner was officially cooked.

**One Week Later**

"So why were called out here again?"

Mai grumbled a curse but decided to enlighten her bubbly friend. "This place suddenly went dark five days ago and we have been sent out to check it out."

Ty Lee sighed and continued on her path. They were following Azula's orders and her troops. An entire battalion had been sent to investigate the strange incident. And of course since it was Azula taking charge they were ordered to follow without question. Ty Lee questioned it, but never voiced it.

"The village is up ahead. Everyone, get ready for anything. We don't know what's in there." Azula snapped out orders left and right as they approached the village. It was a wreck.

Ty Lee felt something from the ruins and whimpered as they got closer. The village was in ruins. Whatever had happened here had hit it very hard. Bodies were strewn across the ground without remorse. They were being eaten by the carrions of the land. What few people lived were in utter fear of those around them and the ground. Most were on their roofs just huddling in fear with weeping children. It was a disaster. Nothing on the ground lived and everything on the roofs were afraid.

Azula finished barking orders and returned to them. "Anything worth noting?" Mai asked fearfully.

"I'm sending a scout team in right now to check up on things. Usually I wouldn't do this, but the letter we got before the place went dark was covered in blood. We have right to treat this place like a threat."

Ty Lee nodded as her thoughts turned to the people that were on top of the roofs. Their auras were strange. They were frightened by something.

After ten minutes of waiting something happened. There was a loud scream followed by an ear splitting sound that reminded Mai of massive animals fighting over a piece of meat. All the auras of the people that were on the roofs changed from fear to despair. Whatever questions anyone had for what was happening was quickly answered as two of the eight men that were sent in, came running back. One of them was limping and holding something. When they were just barely close enough to be seen they realized that the man that was limping was holding what remained of his broken off arm.

"What's going on?"

Azula grabbed up the first man that got to them and her hands came back slick with blood. The look of horror on his face was quickly understood when the ground exploded beneath their feet. Something was beneath the earth and rushing for them.

"There's something underground!"

Azula turned to the man that spoke and was about to question him when she saw it. A long tail was pointed directly at his back. Everyone jumped away and the man whimpered as he was speared in the back. His lifeless body flailed about in the air before he was yanked into the cold and unforgiving earth.

The battalion went into a frenzy and ran for the village to get to higher ground. They were chewed up along the way. Whatever was under the earth wasn't alone.

Azula broke into a full run with the others following behind her. She was fearless, not suicidal. She knew her limits. She couldn't fight something that could hide underground.

They reached the buildings and began scrambling for the roofs. What few people were on each of the roofs reached over and began helping until those that they were helping were grabbed up and yanked beneath the earth. In a matter of minutes a single battalion was whittled down to just a few men.

"What the hell is down there?" Azula turned and watched as one of her men grabbed up a crying woman. "What's down there?"

"I don't know!"

"Stop moving. They'll find us!"

The build shuddered and everyone got quiet. Fear consumed them and then the building finally collapsed. It fell to the ground with a loud crack. Screams sounded not soon after.

"Get to higher ground!" Azula ordered. No one responded. No one moved. She was alive. She was the only survivor.

"Azula, get off the ground! Hurry!" Mai screamed. Her building shuddered and then collapsed. Wooden chunks rose and skewered those on it. Mai jumped before it could fall and landed next to Azula. She rose up and grabbed the princess. "We have to get out of here right-"

"Help me!" Ty Lee screamed.

The two turned and watched as Ty Lee was dragged under the earth. She screamed one last time before falling and then silence consumed them.

Mai sprang into action and ran for her friend. She slid down into the hole and saw something in the darkness. Cold yellow eyes turned towards her. It was a giant lizard of some sort.

The Weapon Mistress grabbed her weapons and then stopped. It turned full and allowed her to see what it was holding in its mouth. Ty Lee was in its mouth. She was bleeding from her stomach and her eyes were glazed over.

Mai dropped her weapons and the thing turned and ran off. Mai remained transfixed on its retreating form. Ty Lee was in its mouth. She was dead. Ty Lee, her friend, the one she had vowed to protect from Azula, was dead.

Hours passed before it was determined what had transpired. The water was tainted and the village was under suspicion of being contaminated as well. Azula ordered the destruction of the citizens and the neighboring villages that traded with them. When news got to the capital of Ty Lee's death, her parents were destroyed mentally. They had never been prepared for it. Mai felt like she was responsible. Azula felt nothing at all.

Days passed before a funeral was held in her honor. Everyone attended that had known her. Her family appeared and broke down at the sight of the empty coffin. The body had never been found. Pieces of clothing and blood had all they had found when a team had been sent out to find her and rescue her. Mai had personally gone with them and found nothing. So she had been one of the few that had been at the front of the line for seeing the empty casket and the painting that had been created in her image.

Mai had checked her room and wanted to find something as a keepsake in her memory. She found her old terraria from her time in the circus. She never found the book that Ty Lee had that belonged to Naruto. Her room had been thoroughly looked into and then cleaned out in the days to come. Her parents had sold everything off that belonged to their daughter because they couldn't take the pain involved in never seeing her smiling face again, despite the fact that she resembled her sisters in more ways than one.

Ty Lee, she'd never see her again.


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 24

"**Here lies Ty Lee." **

His white hair had been cut short and fixed around the headpiece she wore to cover up his left eye through the two small horns that protruded from the headpiece. His clothing consisted mostly of a white robe that was kept closed by a black sash and had a high collar to hide most of his face. The black bandages that wrapped around his mouth and nose helped a lot as well to hide who he really was. To further the illusion he wore black gloves with metal gauntlets over them, both armed with claws and duel blades that he could snap in place to further his fighting prowess. Instead of wearing shoes, he replaced them with bandages, but they were well hidden by the robe he wore.

He ran a gloved hand over the engravings and shook his head. They had managed this, a lot quicker than what he thought possible. Usually it took some amount of time to get things rolling. A death like hers would have taken at least a week to get prepared. But they didn't have a body to burry, so that the real thing here. Without a body to clean and dress they could cut time, and corners. They never found her body so they simply filled it with something else. And rather than burry the body they buried her next to her grandparents in their own graveyard.

The young teen sighed as he stood up, his hands quickly reaching for the hilt of his twin Kodachi blades that rested on the small of his back. He turned and quickly came face to face with a black haired beauty. She was staring at her with cold eyes as she approached the grave. She stopped about two yards away from her and then looked towards the stone.

"Did you know here?" The youth nodded slowly while looking over his shoulder to the grave. "What was she to you?" He motioned to his throat and she sighed. The bandages were a bit red. He couldn't talk. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that you couldn't speak." He shook his head and shrugged. The woman smiled and looked past him towards the stone again. When he looked back at it and then to her, he nodded and began marching off. "You don't have to leave. You can stay if you want." He shook his head and vanished into the setting sun.

_Goodbye, Mai. _He looked over his shoulder one last time as the dark haired female bent over and placed some flowers on the grave. _I'll never forget your kindness to me. _

With a single push he jumped onto the closes roof and began sprinting. He had to get out of the capital before nightfall or it would be impossible to escape.

(-)

"This is it. The official rendezvous point for the invasion force." Sokka announced.

"How did you pick this place?" Toph asked.

"Before we split up, my dad and I found this island on a map. It's uninhabited and the harbor surrounded by cliffs. It seemed like the perfect secluded place."

"Nice choice, Sokka. And we're here four days ahead of schedule." Katara began making her bed.

"Four days!" Aang jumped out of his sleeping bag and began going into a panic.

Zentrai stepped up behind the teen and silently knocked him out. _"His mind is so warped right now I can't even read his mind without getting a headache. Besides, he was having a panic attack."_

The others gave Aang a curious glance before shrugging. Aang had jumped out of his bed and started acting like a worried little child that was fearful of his own shadow. They'd give him the benefit of the doubt this time around. But next time they wouldn't be so lineate with him.

"_Anyways, you guys should get some sleep. I'll take first watch just in case something shows up." _The smiled and walked to the other Assassins that were checking their tools at the moment. _"You two should get some rest as well. Chances are we're going to need all the rest we can get before the invasion. I mean, we're not even officially helping in the frontal attack."_

"Our orders haven't changed." Lyra deadpanned. Her eyes glanced in the direction of the Avatar. "We've be ordered to only help him during the invasion. So from this point on, our job is to protect Aang from danger. Since he's facing the Fire Lord, chances are, we might have to get involved."

"And the others?" Naruto asked quietly.

Lyra gave him a bizarre look before looking away. "Expandable."

Naruto sighed and decided to go rest for a bit. He would take Zentrai's place in a few hours.

(-)

"Mai… It's me… Zuko." The prince knocked on the door to his girlfriends' room and waited for a reply. No reply came. After waiting for a good two minutes he pushed the door open. He found her sitting on her bed with her knees pressed against her chest. "I knocked and called for you. Why didn't you answer?"

Mai was silent.

Zuko looked away and began to stare at her room. He had never really noticed it beforehand, but her room was a little bland. It lacked any real sign of emotion or creativity like Ty Lee's room had. It was just dark colors and a few paintings of them together. There was nothing else.

"I blame Azula for her death. I'm going to fucking kill her when I get a chance."

Zuko lowered his head. He had figured that she would blame her. But to threaten her with death was a bit much, even in her eyes. Who wouldn't? She had led an entire battalion to their deaths, not once, but twice now. Hundreds of men and women gone all because of bad luck on her part. The families of the departed blamed her, but they never voiced it. It wasn't her fault. She was a princess and could do no wrong according to the natural order of things. But it was more than just that. There had been something horribly wrong with their little mission. Some unforeseen creature, angered by something, had attacked them.

Mai had tracked one down with a dozen Firebenders and slew it. She had no way of knowing if it was the one that killed Ty Lee, but she killed it. It was an indigenous creature that traveled in packs of ten or more. They only came out at night and spent most of their time devouring their animals, not humans. But something had set them off and they turned on everything that moved. They attacked even their own and themselves. They were rabid, or close to it. As a result of this, hundreds more were found and slaughtered for safety. What few they could capture were sent to another island where nothing lived.

But the pain of losing Ty Lee hadn't let up even after doing all of this. Zuko thought it was odd that Mai, someone who felt nothing and let emotions pass right through her, was showing them at all. She had always cared for Ty Lee like she was a younger sister. He never thought it was this real. He had always thought of it as a silent promise that Mai had made on her own. How she must have felt he didn't truly know.

"I understand." His girlfriend gave him a look of shock before smiling. "I blame her for a lot of things. But this," he shook his head. "I don't think anyone was prepared for this. Animals going crazy and attacking people wasn't something we were trained to deal with. So if this anyone is at fault, it's nature, and maybe the will of the Spirits. Maybe this is proof that we're doing the wrong thing."

Mai's expression didn't change.

Zuko rose to his feet and let his hair cover his eyes as he spoke. "If you want me to leave you alone… I will. But if you need me, I won't be far."

Zuko walked for the door and paused when he reached it. Mai didn't come after him. He pushed the door open and walked off.

(-)

Ghost kicked in the front door to Rehka's office and scampered up to the desk as two guards bolted into action.

"We've got problems."

Rehka looked over her paperwork and to the busted doors. Her guards were already grabbing him up. She had already done the calculations for why he'd kick her doors in. Saying that they had a problem wasn't something he did unless he was absolutely serious about it. So she waved them off and ordered him to sit down instead of having him hauled off like she normally did. Of course the arrival of Reaper didn't make things any better since they started bickering right there as soon as she was inside.

"You'd arrest me if I did that." Reaper remarked.

"That's because you're a cunt. That's why." Ghost informed her. Reaper reached for her scythe and the guards were on her. "See… They know you're a raging cunt. Now sit down and behave. Daddy's got this in the bag."

Reaper seethed with hatred but soon calmed down as a result of two guards pressing her deeper into the chair. She was sitting in.

Rehka leaned forward and stippled her fingers together. "I'm listening now, Ghost. Explain what the problem is."

The Assassin smiled and then looked confused. "What am I explaining something for?"

"Arrest him." The guards dragged him away and then Reaper when Rehka decided that two penis jokes were more than enough to get her thrown in jail and on the grounds of trying to instigate a fight. That left Hawkeye to fill the void. "Please tell me you know what he was going to tell me before I have him personally executed on the grounds of stupidity and being a sexiest."

"I'm not sure you can do that, but I understand. I will tell you what you want to know." Rehka nodded her gratitude and listened. "The invasion is known to the Fire Nation. They've known for some amount of time." Rehka's calm exposure fell. "During our latest mission a few of the guards were talking about it. They mentioned that they wanted to return home to beat back the invasion force. Because of this, we can only assume that they know about because of Azula's time as a spy in Ba Sing Se. I haven't gotten word yet, but it would appear as though Kuei hasn't been captured and he hasn't spoken to anyone about the invasion."

"We did threaten him with death." Rehka muttered.

She was already in a panic though. Zentrai had been right. The plan had fallen through and it if she was right they were well out of reach. They were on their own now. It was too late to send a message out to them. They were out of reach and by the time the bird got to them it would be too late. They were sunk and right before they could do anything. The only thing she could do now was sit back and prey for the best. No doubt when Zentrai learned of this he'd pull Aang out. He wouldn't dare let him fight an army that may or may not be prepared for them.

"That isn't the worst of it, though." Rehka's face went pale. "They have working airships that they will use on them after the eclipse. They acquired them from the wreckage of a destroyed War Balloon that had been created by the Mechanic Aang and the others ran into a few months back at one of the Air Temples. He had originally built it for them, but I guess since he saw it go down that it would be incapable of being salvaged. He was wrong. They made hundreds of them and a dozen large War Airships. They have to be warned of this."

"All our fastest members are out or dead. We don't have time. They'll just have to make due on their own."

"We could send a small strike-"

"No. They will be fine on their own. I have faith in them. But just in case, I want you to inform the other Top Ten Assassins of a meeting I need to have with them. If worse comes to worse, promotions may be in order." She gave a nod to the archer before she departed. Once the doors were shut, Rehka rose and glanced towards a painting of Zentrai and Naruto with her in the center. Her two children that she viewed as her own were about to be in for the biggest fight of their lives probably and she had no way of warning them. She was out of options. _Good luck you three. You're going to need it. _

(-)

Aang woke up screaming and went out mumbling as Toph coldcocked him in the face with all her might. He soared backwards two feet before hitting the ground with a thud. Katara was already at his side when he hit the ground and glaring up at the Earthbender as she moved back to the others. Sokka was shaking his head as the mute and one armed bender sighed.

"Seriously, what's up with him? This is the third time today you've knocked him out. So can you explain this to us?" Sokka pleaded.

As much as they all liked watching other knock out the Avatar, it was getting annoying. Already everyone had hit him at least once. But no one had hated it more than Katara. She had been merciful and simply forced him to lay down with Bloodbending before she carefully hit a pressure point she knew of.

"_Aang's mind is so jumbled right now that I can't make heads or tails out of what he's thinking about. He was thinking about how he wasn't prepared for his math test this time though and how Ozai could fly on some sort of a flying hippo-cow that breathed fire. Not sure what's wrong with him, but he's going to knock it off, one way or another." _The mute sighed and leaned back into the grass. _"He's just worried about the invasion that's about to take place. I would be to if I were him. This will be his first real major battle he's been in."_

"What about the battle at Ba Sing Se? Doesn't that count?" Katara asked quietly.

"_No. That wasn't really a battle. That was more like a small fight. It's hard to discern what's a battle and not nowadays. But what you're all about to do is a battle. A battle to us is where it's you fighting an army or even more. Like I said, it's complicated now."_

Naruto shifted and moved for the cliffs. Sokka followed and the two stopped at the edge as Naruto dropped down to sitting on the edge. The two stared out at the open sea for a long time before Naruto spoke.

"I'm not sure if you remember or not, but we won't be helping you during your invasion. Our duty is to protect the Avatar at all costs. So we'll be taking a different route to go and protect him. Once your friends arrive, we're out of here. We'll make our way to the capital on our own while you guys take your method. We'll get there first and then help Aang out."

"I know."

"I just want you to understand that whatever happens out there, you're on your own." Sokka nodded. Naruto suddenly smiled. "I wonder why no one lives out here. This is a great place. Has an awesome view. It's plenty big for someone to live in peace and still have room to grow. I don't think I'd mind living right here."

The swordsman chuckled. "That is true. It's kind of amazing to know that the Fire Nation has spots like this. I suppose when I was told about the war and about the Fire Nation I had always assumed that they lived in a place where fire was all you could see. And that it was so hot they wore no clothes. Not sure why I thought like that, but being a kid and immature to the world can make you do that." Sokka paused and then add: "It could just be because I lived in a really cold place and I wanted to know what it was like to live in a really hot place. That sounds about right."

"Where I'm from, we called it Fire Country, though we lived in a place where all you could see were trees for miles and miles. That land is gone now, but I still remember climbing onto the tallest of trees and laughing at the world. Those were good times. I always thought I was the best and couldn't be brought down. I suppose looking back at it; I was just as immature as you are." Sokka chuckled and accepted the dig. "But those times that I want back will never come back. I look back at the things I've done and wonder what I would have done differently if I knew now what I knew then."

"Would you go back and change things?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. I'd leave it as it is. Too much work." Sokka laughed and the older teen rose to his feet. "I'm going to go find some food for Rai before he eats Appa. I don't trust him to hunt alone. He might just target you guys."

Sokka grimaced and glanced in the direction of the large pet. Sure enough it was looking at Appa like it was a meal.

(-)

Mai waited for the meeting to end. She wanted to speak with Zuko. She needed to speak with him about something. She wanted to get her thoughts off of Ty Lee. But it was hard doing it on her own. She thought that if Zuko talked with her it would make it easier. But of course he'd be in a war meeting with Azula and Ozai. So she was forced to wait.

"The meeting is almost over."

The Weapon Mistress gave a slight nod to the guard and then returned to her spot where she had been waiting. She was getting impatient, but she couldn't blame Zuko. This wasn't his fault. This was the thing he had dreamed of for so long. This was proof that his father had accepted him back as his son and the prince. It was a great moment for him as it was for her. It was the beginning steps of him taking over the throne.

"_That's all a soul is. An obstacle. Something to overcome."_

She fumbled once and placed a hand on the pillar for balance. Ty Lee had said those words to her before they had left. Why had she said those words? She had always known her as a bubbly girl that was never angry or sad. She was always happy, like a ray of sunshine. She never gave up on anything that she could or couldn't do. She shot for the sky and nothing more. But those words haunted her now.

Mai knew the cause behind it all. Azula had done something. First she had taken Ty Lee away from what made her happy by basically torturing her. She made her life hell just to get her to come with her. The next thing she did was try to sell her off to Naruto during his betrayal when they hunted the Avatar. And then after that it was the constant defeat at his hands that caused Azula to become unstable, thus causing her to snap at everyone, Ty Lee often times being the one taking it all.

But that hadn't been the real thing that she believed set it off. Naruto's death or even supposed death had caused it. She had started her change then. Something between his fall to the time they had returned to the Fire Nation had caused her to change. Whatever it was had sparked something possibly hidden or just never used by the acrobat. She had become heated and seemed angry whenever Azula tried to push her around. It really didn't make any sense. Maybe she always had that in her and just never wanted to let it out.

"And she said I had problems in bottling things up." Mai chuckled at the memory of Ty Lee telling her that.

She waited thirty more minutes before Zuko showed up. He seemed distant at first and then warmed up after talking about how the meeting had gone. They walked and talked and were soon at his place waiting for something to happen. His servants were gone and they were alone. Zuko rested on his bed while Mai was sitting in a chair adjacent to it. When he finally spoke, he was quiet and sullen.

"So how are you doing?"

Mai looked up and then over at a painting. It was a painting of them from when they had returned in honor of his return. "I'm okay. You?"

"Same." He leaned back into his bed and considered taking off his shirt. Would that come off as a perverted thing? He tossed that thought aside and took it off regardless. Mai didn't even bother glancing at him and he didn't care either way. "My father is planning something terrible, Mai. I didn't feel like myself during that meeting. I felt like I was someone different. Why do you think that is?"

"No idea. Why do you care about it, anyways?"

"I'm not sure myself. But I feel like I forced myself to be his perfect son during that meeting. It wasn't natural."

"You were away at sea for so long. Maybe it was because you were gone that caused this. You were used to giving orders and not having anyone but Iroh question you. That could be the real reason." Mai thought about that for a moment and then laughed. That would be the real reason. He was used to giving orders and never being questioned. Suddenly being questioned must have caused it. "Do you wanna order the servants around?"

"No." He rose up and smiled at her. "I think I just need to think on some things. Clear my head. Talking is great, but I'm not really in a talking mood. But I could always use the company I guess. Just the thought of having you around makes things easier for me." She smiled and slinked into bed with him. Zuko crashed back into the bed and snuggled up to her. _I'm sorry, Mai. But this is all I can do. I've made my choice. I'm sorry. _He placed his head next to hers and began to doze off.

In a few days during the invasion he'd make his move. He thought all the angles out. He was in the clear for his great escape.

(-)

The sun rose and Katara was the first to rise. Naruto had stayed up that night to watch over them and as such was awake. She ignored him for a while before he growing curiosity took over. He was sitting on the edge of the cliff when she approached him. He ignored her appearance for a while before finally acknowledging her.

"What do you wanna know about, Katara? Or do you want me to help you cook something?"

She shook her head. "No. I got that. I was just curious on why you guys never told us about Hama being one of you."

Naruto turned back to the ocean and looked for an answer in the waves. "I didn't know she was one of us." Katara snorted and then went back to cooking. It would be a few more hours before anyone was up. And she did have time to kill. "And even if I did know she was one of us, I doubt that Zentrai would have told me about it. I mean, we all have subordinates that we have at our disposal. They're sort of like servants or our own personal team."

"Do you have some?"

Naruto was silent for a moment before saying; "Not right now. I don't have any yet because I'm not a leader. You could say I tried it once and it never worked out. As a result of that I just never got around to getting some. Each of the Top Ten Assassins has some, but a few don't have. Lyra has two, but she keeps them at the village. Zentrai apparently has Hama as one of his. She's probably the only one. But as for the others, they possibly switched them out for students."

Katara didn't believe him and sighed as a result. She really just wanted the truth from him.

"Did it frighten you to know what Hama made you learn without your consent?" She stiffed and closed her eyes as she thought back to that fight. Naruto looked back into the ocean and smiled at the memory.

**Flashback**

Pain raced through Aang and Sokka as they were forced to their knees. Katara watched helplessly as her friends were bent and forced to fight each other. She tried to stop it but it soon proved to be impossible. Hama had years of experience unlike her. She couldn't win on just her youth like how she thought she would have been able to. She was stuck and would be forced to watch as her friends were slain by each other's hand.

"You can save them, Katara. Just swear to become my student and I'll teach this power to you."

Katara snorted and rose back to her feet. Hama waved a hand in front of her and dropped her in an instant. Katara struggled to rise, but with Hama Bloodbending her into the ground she couldn't move or fight back. Even if she was drawing power from the moon she wouldn't be able to break something like this without learning how to do it herself.

Seeing it in action wasn't enough. She had to taste it. Use it. But to do so would corrupt her. She couldn't bring herself to have or want this power.

"Katara! Help!" Sokka shouted as he pointed his sword for Aang's throat.

The young Waterbender glanced up at the call for help.

Sokka surged forward for Aang and then dropped to the ground in a crash. His sword sliced into his arm but it wasn't deep. He'd live with a few bandages. But not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth and wait for another chance at being controlled, the young Warrior rose to his feet and looked at Hama. She was ramrod straight and fidgeting with a smile and a look of surprise.

"Katara… you did it. I've taught you all I can teach you. The rest is up to you."

Katara's eyes were wide with fright as Aang moved to her. She had done it. She was Bloodbending. She had reached deep inside Hama and controlled her to the very core of her body. She could do whatever she wanted with her. She could kill her or make her a slave to her whim.

An explosion sounded in the distance. Katara's concentration was broken and Hama flexed her hands. "I'm guessing that Lyra has taken care of my captured people. And I was still using them to perfect this style. Oh well. No bother to me. I did enjoy their company." Hama raised a hand in their direction and smiled. "Now, Avatar or not, I will do away with you and move on to the next village. My work has been compromised here because of your interference."

The three were controlled once more. Hama forced Sokka to throw his weapon aside and then smiled as she began flexing her left hand. Sokka began to scream and fought to get away. His attempts were in vain. Hama took great pleasure in his attempts before she finally began to slow close it. Sokka screams got louder until a voice pierced the night.

"_Hama! That's enough! Down bitch!" _

The Bloodbender stopped and released her captive prey. She didn't bother turning as Lyra appeared with Toph and took up a fighting stance before dropping it. Zentrai and Naruto had arrived.

Hama's smile grew bigger. "It's been a long time, Lord Zentrai. I have almost perfected my abilities. But why save them? They are young and inexperienced."

The two Elite Assassins moved up beside her as Zentrai spoke. _"You can kill the others. But the Avatar is to remain alive, along with Lyra. But since we're here, you can forgo killing them. They'll be of greater use to us during the invasion they have planned. We need them alive as a result. So don't go killing them." _

The mute smiled as Katara gave him a hard glare.

"_So you taught her how to Bloodbend? I'm impressed she even learned it. Then again, Bloodbending is different from all other forms of Forbidden Bending. Bloodbending requires a great understanding of the Human Body. Since Katara is a healer she would know of it. And there's also the fact that you can only use it during a Full Moon that would make it easier for her to use it now. Congratulations Katara, you're a Bloodbender. Now you have the power to fight the Fire Nation on an even ground and take your revenge on the murderer that slew your mother. How do you feel?"_ He smiled at her.

The new Bloodbender hissed at him before breaking down into tears again.

Hama smiled proudly. "Take my teachings well, lass. You'll need them in the future."

"Don't you dare speak another word." Aang threatened. The Assassins snorted and dismissed Aang's threat. "How can you justify this? You guys told us you were always about defending the innocent. And yet you let her do as she wishes? What's wrong with you?"

"Avatar, this is war. I was captured and brought her against my will. How do you think I felt being locked in those cells that they kept me in? How do you think I felt knowing that I was leaving my brother and sisters behind because one could hide better than a hundred? I wanted them to feel my agony for imprisoning me for so long that I couldn't stand it anymore. I am doing to them what they have done to us. It's for the greater good."

"No it isn't."

"Aang, enough." The Avatar gave Naruto a hard glare. "Zentrai, Hama has clearly been doing her job correctly. But no doubt the villagers will suspect her now since so many people probably saw her in action when she trained Katara. We can't let her stay here any longer. She has to return."

The mute sighed. He really wanted to keep Hama out here. But he could sense them now. Dozens of people had seen the fight and they couldn't be allowed to live. _"Return to our village, Hama. Inform Calamity that you're returning under my direct orders. He'll understand. He took your spot when I sent you out here." _

"Of course, Lord Zentrai." She bowed and was off before the others could stop her.

"_Naruto, clean up the place. Lyra, help him out. The rest of you, we're moving on. Anyone who lags behind stays behind." _The mute smiled as he reconnected with Hama. _"Go to Fire Fountain City and continue your work there. They won't touch that town, Hama."_

"_Yes, Lord Zentrai. I understand." _Hama smiled as she slinked off.

**Flashback Ends**

Katara shook her head to clear the memory. That was a horrifying thing for her. What she had done was beyond human. And what Naruto and Lyra had done to the village was beyond human as well. They made the entire place go insane by contaminating the water with a color dye. Their plan had been to make them believe that the Fire Nation was attacking them and the water would be the excuse for why they attacked their saviors. Naruto made some clones and then turned them into Fire Nation soldiers. The illusion was complete and a bunch of people got slaughtered.

She shivered at the idea of what they might have done to them before their deaths. It wasn't a pleasant thought.

"Shouldn't you be making sure Rai doesn't eat Appa or something?" Naruto sighed and rose to go stop Rai before he did eat Appa. "And wake the others while you're at it. Breakfast is almost done."

"Anything else you want me to tell them, Commander Katara?" She blushed and turned away. He was mocking her.

(-)

When Iroh had first learned of the invasion he had been worried for his nephew. But something else had detoured him from worrying about his nephew. It was the knowledge that he had done the right thing and did his best to change him. He could only pray that he had done it in time. In truth he was still worried about him, but he was content with the knowledge that he had done everything in his power to change him. As a result he was able to focus more on his task at hand.

Ever since he had been put in this place he had started training. He had done pushups, sit-ups, crunches, jumping jacks, and pull-ups. He had done this right under the guards' noses. He felt bad for them. When the eclipse took place he'd be able to surprise them. With all his training he had spent getting in shape and eating less to make it possible he was certain than when he busted out of here he'd be next to unstoppable. He was only worried about getting hit in the crossfire as he made his escape. That was his only concern at the moment.

"Here you are, Iroh."

He smiled a false smile. He was always worried about Ming. She had been so kind to him during his time here that he didn't want to see her hurt. She wasn't like the others that mocked him for failures and for turning his back on the Fire Nation. Azula had no doubt blown that out of proportions given how much she hated him. And he had tried to save her as well but failed.

"Thank you, Ming. Your generosity makes my imprisonment a little better." She smiled and pushed his tray to him. He could see the added things already. His favorite tea and seconds on the meal for today. She was too kind. "Thank you." He smiled and took the offerings. She departed soon after to continue her rounds, all the while unaware that the man she cared for was just a few days away from escaping the second most secured prison in the Fire Nation.

(-)

"Are you sure these people can fight?"

Hakoda wondered just the same thing. Bato seemed to always voice his concern on this matter though. Each person they stumbled across with the directions his son gave them seemed to get stranger and stranger. Those swamp people were the strangest so far though. They didn't wear pants and the biggest one among them was some sort of a sage or enlightened person. He was always talking about how time was illusion and that pants were an illusion just like death. Hakoda didn't know what was worse. Their smell or that they didn't wear pants.

"Not sure myself. But I trust my son with these people. The Earth Kingdom troops we've picked up have already proven their worth to me. They retook their village and that on its own says a lot about them. So I trust them to fight with us and fight well. Besides, they want the Fire Nation gone just as much as we do."

"You shouldn't worry about us." Teo announced as he rolled up to the elders. The two older warriors gave each other a glance. He was a curious one. Crippled and yet still willing to fight. That spoke volumes that no other person could do. "My dad and I will be on the frontlines with you guys because we wanna help fight as well. We already have things invented to help us out. So don't worry about us."

Hakoda nodded and flashed the youth a small grin.

Teo turned and waved to a few others as they began walking over with some chow. Hakoda left them to their thoughts and let them converse in peace. He had other things he needed to be doing.

In the short time that he had been away from his son, he had slowly began to understand just what his son had gone through during his time traveling the world with Aang and his sister. He was proud of his son on more than one moment. Haru told him their story and about how Sokka and Katara had helped them gain their courage back. He was so proud by him that he would give him the biggest hug he could give him when they met again. His two children had made him the proudest father in the world.

Others that they had found spoke highly of them as well. Though a few, namely people like The Boulder and The Hippo, had other things to say concerning them. He couldn't say anything in his children's defense as they hadn't fought them. But what they said about Toph proved that she was a fighter just as good as any veteran warrior.

But there were still a lot of things he had to worry about. His children had once promised him that the Assassins would aid them. But that had proved to be impossible. The Assassins were out of the question. And those that were with them for this were only coming to keep Aang safe. That irked him. It ruined a lot of their plans but they were okay with that. Hakoda believed that they had surprise on their side. That was more than enough in his mind. And if the enemy knew they were coming they had the Avatar as their ace in the hole.

"Sir," Bato whispered to get his attention. "We're two days away from the rendezvous point. Do you think that your son as his team have made it that far yet? I mean… no offense, but your daughter is a bit too kind hearted. Do you think that they'll make it in time…"

"I know that they'll make it. In fact, I'm betting money that they're kicking back right now just waiting for us to show up. So relax will you? I know what you mean about my daughter, but even she understands that this is critical. She'll make the sacrifice. I know she will." He patted his friend on the shoulder and departed for his quarters. He needed to think on some things.

(-)

Sokka glanced at the sleeping Avatar and grimaced as he shook his hand.

"That hurts a lot more than what I had always thought it would."

"First time punching someone out?" Lyra asked. He nodded and she chuckled. "I was the same way. That's why instead of flat punching him the way you did, I palm them. Less painful that way… at least for me that is." She stood up and rubbed her shoulder where her missing arm was. It felt good to remove the fake arm she had been forced to use in public and on their way over here. She hadn't ever taken off during their trip until now. It was a big weight off her shoulders so to speak. "We're going to have to get him out of this sooner or later."

"I know." Sokka became downcast as he thought about what Aang had been spewing on about while he was awake for the few good minutes. "Do you really think we'll be climbing anything during this attack?"

"Outside of rubble caused by all the fighting? No. He's delusional. If he keeps this up, he'll be a threat to everyone, including himself. If that happens, we'd pull him out without a care in the world for this invasion. He's too important to lose."

"Why? He's the Avatar. He has to do this. So what if he dies. I mean, he'll just be reborn in the next nation in the cycle."

"True, his people will forever be gone. And what do you think will happen when it reaches the Air Nomads and they aren't here? Chances are the cycle will be broken then and there and there will be no more Avatars to keep the balance in this world. If that happens, people believe that it will spiral into chaos."

Sokka thought about that before asking, "Do you think it will?"

"Not too sure. Humans are greedy and arrogant people. I think it would do us some good to not have the Avatar anymore. We rely too heavily on him in times of war. So if he's gone everyone will start fighting like they were when he vanished. The Fire Nation would surely go unchecked, but I don't think it would be just them. After a few years of fighting I'm pretty sure a victor would be chosen and then the fighting would start over again. When that happens we will all be pulled into the fighting like we are now, but it'll be different. Allies will be drawn up and then caste aside just as quickly as they came. Enemies will be forever changing. There will be no peace until only one great power remains that can bring supremacy over them. But that will takes hundreds of years if you ask me."

Sokka looked down at the sleeping Air Nomad and chewed on his lip. "But with the Avatar we can prevent that, right?" She shrugged and walked off. Sokka remained and decided to tend to Aang as the others went about getting things ready. He had no idea on how long it would take for Aang to awaken but he had an idea.

Sokka decided that leaving Aang to his sleeping was a good thing and began training with his sword. Piandao had given him a few scrolls concerning sword style and stances for him to use while he traveled and trained on his own. He decided to start doing them. He had nothing better to do. And it would help clear his mind. He needed to focus on something else other than the battle that would be here in a few days. He had to get his act together so he could what was needed of him.

He started slowly on his training. He had to pick a secluded spot to do it too. That part wasn't hard. A forest did nicely.

Sokka took a calm breath and began his training. He found a tree and went to work on it. He stabbed and slashed at it like it were a living person. He stabbed it twice and then slashed it across the gut like it was a living person. It would have surely been dead.

Sokka stepped back and glanced at the tree. If this had been a real fight he knew he'd be dead. He was just randomly swinging with no real taste for it. He needed an instructor. That was what he needed. He didn't need a tree. They provided him nothing but a training dummy that took blows and never dished them out.

He decided he was done and sheathed his sword before returning to his friends. Katara already had dinner cooked and was in the middle of serving it as the Assassins all returned from their posts. Sokka stared at them and felt pity for them. Blindside had said they trusted no one. Not even their allies. To be fearful of everything, including their own warriors, was a scary thing to him. He knew betrayal existed in every army. But they took it a step forward. Rules so outrages were in place and if they weren't followed you were condemned as a traitor. That was harsh and unnatural and inhuman. But with their job status he couldn't blame them.

"Aang will be up soon." Lyra told them with a smile. "This time no one knock him out. We're going to end this here and now. He's going to learn that he has to man up now or we pull him out of the fight. And no one here will complain about it either. This is something he has to do." The two girls nodded, albeit slowly while Sokka did nothing.

(-)

Blindside gave Answerer a strange look. She wasn't what he truly thought she'd be. She didn't look the part of an Assassin in his mind, but then again, there were people here with questionable clothing that actually worked for them. Even though Inferno was incased in a heavy suit of armor, he actually could blend right into shadows and keep up with the best of them. So if looks were an issue, people like Inferno could put it shame.

Answerer, however, was a little off on what he thought for her appearance. She had leather straps around her bicep where her sleeveless robe was. She wore all white, straight down to her sandals. Her pants were held together by a white sash with bits or white armor mixed into it. Her face was regular but her eyes were hidden from view by a thin piece of metal that wrapped around her face. He knew she could see through it by the thin slits in it. Her hair was black and her skin tan.

He didn't care about her clothing though. Her weapons were all he cared about.

She had a Zhanmadao as opposed to a small or thin sword. It, too, was all white with flicks of gold on the guard that resembled horns. It was masked with odd markings that reminded him of the old style of writing from their olden days back before there was a style of writing like there was today. It was as large as she was tall. She kept it strapped to her back.

On both wrists she had white guards with a long blade resting on the top it just waiting to be released for combat. It, too, had the same strange markings like the sword.

Answerer was one of the Assassins newest members that had attained a small name and tasted revenge. She had met his criteria only because he needed to train someone and because she had covered almost everything he wanted to cover with Jasmine. His only real complaint outside of his others was her giant sword she used. He had no idea on how to train her to use it. It was annoying to say the least.

"You do understand that I can't train you to use that thing, right?" She nodded mutely as she gripped the hilt a little tighter. He wanted to snap that thing in half because he wanted to pass his teachings on to his student. Or at least his way of teaching people. "We'll be heading out to the mountains near Omashu and we'll most likely spend a month up there. I've already gotten permission from Rehka to allow it. The only request is that we send her reports concerning your training."

"I understand." Her voice was near whisper quiet.

Blindside decided to accept her quiet answer. She was a quiet person ever since she had taken her revenge. He'd let that go for the time being but he doubted he'd be able to change her for the better that way.

"Pack your bags and get ready. We'll be leaving soon."

Answerer nodded and then moved towards the closes door. When she left he was ready and waiting for her. He wondered just how long it would take for her to get ready to leave. He already knew the answer though. She was ready because she never kept any personal belongings. She found them to be trivial and idiotic.

_All I need to worry about is her breaking. She looks like she's ready to break without my helping. _

He sighed and moved to the chair in the room. He wanted to wait for her here but soon decided against it. He had better things to do.

(-)

Aang awoke with a start and quickly began shouting out orders for the others to do things that would save their lives because they died in horrible ways during their fighting. It was a funny thing at the time up until they got to the point of trying to order around Naruto and Zentrai. Lyra didn't really care about him trying to order her around. She actually found it funny that he said she'd die by means of not being fast enough to Earthbend.

Naruto listened to it for another ten minutes before deciding to grab the teen up and then bring him to the beach for a talk. Aang was still spewing crazy things about how Naruto died because he couldn't get his clones to listen to him. That was rather laughable.

"But you're going to die because you couldn't get them to listen to you! Summon them so I can make them listen to you."

Naruto placed a hand on the youth's shoulder and smiled down at him. "Aang, my clones will listen to me. You must have faith in me on this. And the others will be fine as well. You're overthinking this because this will be the first major battle you've fought in where the lives of millions are truly weighing you down. You must have faith in your friends."

"But my dreams said that they will die! Do you have any idea on what it means for me to have visions like this?"

"Aang, you are starting to worry me. If you continue to spiral down this path, we'll have no choice but to pull you out for your own safety and for the world's. Do you even understand that what you're doing is not only putting yourself and the world in danger, but your friends as well? If you continue this, we will take you out of this fight, even if we must do so against your will, Aang. You're too important to the world."

"But…"

"No. Aang, you have a duty to this world. We expect you to follow it. You can't continue doing this. So either straighten up soon, we'll have no other choice but to pull you out. I'm serious too." The Avatar looked away and then began to hyperventilate. "Aang, if you want to succeed in this, think about winning and nothing else. That's all you have to do. Well that and get a good nights' sleep before the invasion. And I mean that. If you don't get a good night of rest I will pull you out. I have the power to do it and you know I do. So go get something to eat and get some sleep." He slapped him on the back and watched him go.

When the youth was gone, Naruto sighed and looked out towards the Fire Nation Capital.

_I hope you guys are okay. _

He sighed and decided to continue his patrol. He had nothing else better to do.

(-)

"Whip up a fog cover so that the Fire Nation doesn't see us. We can't afford to be caught right now."

Hakoda didn't bother watching the Waterbenders from the swamp create the fog. He'd seen it a dozen times already to know what it looked like. He was focused on the blockade that was just a few miles out. His scouts had reported them and they took immediate action to counter them. They dove into the rocks to avoid detection. Of course the downside to this was that they lost one of their boats and that the entire passage was very narrow. One small mistake and you'd end up sunk just like the other boat had been.

Hakoda wasn't worried about the blockade. He had avoided dozens of them with well thought out battle plans. But this was different. The blockade was relatively small. So small in fact that it didn't even count as a blockade. That worried him. That either meant they wanted them to get by or that they had spread themselves too thin. He was hoping it was that the second option. That meant that the invasion was still a secret. His only primary concern at the moment was getting to the rendezvous point in one piece.

"Sir, we've avoided them." Hakoda released the held breath he wasn't aware he was holding. "But that was a bit too easy in my opinion."

"I know. Don't alert the men to this just yet. I think that the invasion is still under wraps right now and that the Fire Nation is unaware of it. If they were aware of it, they'd have sunk us right then and there. They wouldn't have bothered with us getting through. And the fleet that was blocking our way was rather small. So that means that they either know or are too thin."

"I hope they're just too thin at the moment." Bato looked through the scoop and smiled. "I can see the rendezvous point. Your son and daughter are on the edge of the cliff and heading down. Looks like they were able to pull through in the end, sir. No offense."

Hakoda decided to let that be. He hadn't expected that much from his son when it came to sneaking around. Either the Assassins had really gotten them through, or the kids had pulled together and done it themselves. Either way, he was sure happy to see his kids again.

(-)

"Fire Lord Ozai, we've got a report for you."

"So they've come?"

"Yes. The blockade guarding the uninhibited islands was invaded. They have a base there. What should we do?"

"Leave it and have all our forces return home that are forming the blockades. Tell their commanding officers to head to their designated rendezvous points and await further instructions. Have my Royal Firebenders get ready to move out. And tell my daughter that they are approaching now. She knows what to do."

"Yes, sir." He bowed and departed.

Ozai smiled. His daughter had not been wrong to see up a small blockade on the outlying islands that weren't inhabited any longer. Those islands had long since been uninhabited because it made getting to them near impossible. After this invasion was pushed back and the rest of the world destroyed and recreated in his honor, he'd inhabit those islands. Getting to them on boat was easy enough. But it was impossible to carry large items up their steep slopes. Now with their airships they could colonize them and use them as advantage points in the near future.

His guards arrive and they began heading for the underground bunker. In a few hours the fighting would begin. They needed to be prepared for the worse now. There was no telling what sort of tricks they'd have up their sleeves.

(-)

"_Three… Two… One… Now."_

Five guards dropped dead in Zentrai's tower while seven other towers lost their men as well.

This was the hardest part of their plan to keep up with Aang. They didn't like it, but they had no choice.

Two days ago, Naruto had created four clones to serve as replacements while Zentrai, Lyra and himself all made their way to the capital of the Fire Nation. It took them two days because they had to travel slow and avoid detection. Usually they never really worked with a time schedule like this. They always left weeks in advanced so they could be ready for anything and take their time. This allowed them to cover up their trail and scout out the place in advanced. Things changed. Information could change. They worked on the fly once and it ruined them. They had no intention of repeating that mistake.

Once they made landfall they began heading in the same direction that Aang would take via the plan that Sokka and Hakoda had set up. His route took him directly over an entire armada of towers that were equipped with long-range defensive weapons. Sure they wouldn't aim worth a flip, but it wasn't the aim that had them worried. It was that they would be able to report you if they saw you. And since that was something they didn't need, they had all agreed to go in and destroy everyone inside them.

Aang and the others weren't aware of this. They did this only to ensure the Avatar's survival. If they spotted him he would be toast. Even if they weren't able to hit him they'd still report him. And the last thing they needed was for the Avatar to be taken out by a well prepared Fire Lord Ozai.

The five guards that now lay dead twitched and Zentrai gave them each a dead check from the shadows. These towers were set up in a unique and painful way. Their neighboring tower would always be able to see them. It was a pain but only two towers wouldn't be able to see each other. The first and last towers were set up that way. It was strange but effective. In order to get around this they had to take out the neighboring tower at the same time. But the problem was the set up. They each had one guard watching them at all time. And that was what made this so tricky.

Zentrai glanced through the shadows and blinked. Naruto's third clone that was hitting another tower at the same time still had its guards sitting in their chairs. He waited and then noticed that the blond clone had killed them and left them sitting like they were alive. Smart, but dangerous. If one of them suddenly keeled over it'd get them caught. But then again, they had all been ordered to do that and Zentrai just was unlucky and let them drop without even worrying about what might happen. Not like he truly carried. They were all the way in the back and he was in the clear since Naruto had taken out the one that was watching this one.

"_You guys all okay?" _He got a quick reply that everyone was fine before pressing on. Though, that didn't stop him from having an awkward conversation like always. _"So what are we doing after this? I mean, supposing we win this fight and nothing goes wrong."_

"_Going to curl up in bed after taking a nice hot bath," _Lyra answered through the mental connection.

"_I think I'll probably find a nice place to live and do so in silence without ever fighting again." _Naruto answered.He smiled as they made their way to the next set of towers.

They quickly moped up the next set of towers before they finished up. When things were done they began heading for their rendezvous point. They had to scout out the capital before Aang got here. They doubted they'd have this place fully scouted before the others showed up. Given the fact that it had taken them little over two hours to destroy the other forces guarding the towers, they were a little surprised to see a few people leaving the capital.

Naruto looked over at Zentrai and then looked down at the fleeing masses. The mute shook his head. He was too far out to read their thoughts. Naruto sighed and decided that it was pointless to continue searching for answers. They wasted too much time just trying to keep Aang safe.

(-)

The ships were fully loaded with troops. They were filled with people that were ready to fight and die for the best cause there was: Destroying the Fire Nation. They were all ready to fight and die for this cause. It wasn't noble. But it was worth the chance to take out their common enemy.

The new generation of Warriors shifted from foot to foot in a nervous gesture not mirrored by the older battle hardened veterans. Some sighed and tried to calm down by breathing easy. The older generation just sighed and thought about how this might go down. Some just waited for the doors to open.

"Prepare for battle! We're opening the hull of the boat in thirty seconds! Everyone get ready!"

Sokka checked his sword and wondered if he should go ahead and draw it. They were still in the boats and the Fire Nation was still shooting at them with their explosive ballistae. If he drew it now and they rocked one way he'd skewer someone. He decided to wait until they were on land.

The submarine rocked to the side twice and then screeched as it jumped up onto land. A few people hit the ground as they came to a hard stop. Sokka sighed as he picked himself up off the floor while the hull of the boat opened up. As one he rushed out with the others screaming a battle cry that drowned out the sounds of Firebenders Firebending at them and Earthbenders Earthbending. Steel clashed with steel as Non-Benders rushed out to fight the enemy head on.

It was finally on. The battle for the fate of the world was now underway.

A/N

And we have finally reached it. The Day of Black Sun. This was probably, in my opinion, the best moment in the Avatar series. I say that only because of what we can do and what they couldn't do. I understand that they couldn't show people dying. We can. They couldn't show people getting hurt but they could show the end results of it. We can. The invasion will be a little bit different since we're going to make this real. What that means is that when Sokka goes to steal that one guys mount by cutting his spear in two and then just butt pushing him out of the saddle, we're going to have Sokka cut him in half and kick him out of the saddle. So people are going to die.


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 25

Fire sprayed into the air and mixed with earth and water in a crashing effect of utter destruction. Molten earth fell to the ground while steaming air hissed at the unprotected skin of those close to the benders. A dance of clashing steel formed as bodies fell.

The Fire Nation had never seen soldiers like these before. They fought like possessed people. The Non-Benders broke their ranks, snapped limb, stabbed them full of holes, and with captured weapons, tore through every wave that came there way until a river of blood and gore lay on the ground. Bodies so mangled and broken rested next to fallen comrades and enemies as the battle waged on. The only place that was for the Fire Nation was the towers where the battlements were. They fired ballista after ballista down on them with explosive contents strapped to them.

The battlements took out scores of troops that failed to notice them until it was too late. Those that ran for cover realized it was hopeless. They were running down a narrow lane with no cover unless it was created through steady Earthbending. The battlements, should they remain standing, would destroy them utterly. They had to be taken out.

This was why Sokka, Hakoda, and Katara were riding Appa. To give the invasion a chance they were going to take them out. What few Earthbenders there were that could help did so by either yanking the earth out from beneath them or by plugging them up with large chunks of earth.

Sokka hung onto Appa's horn as he drew his sword. The Flying Bison moved within inches of the ballista and Sokka cut off the tip of it. The tip, laced with explosives, flew backwards when Appa flapped his tail once. It detonated inside the tower, killing or wounding the occupants. The next tower was taken out by Hakoda. He threw in a few explosives that blew most of the tower apart. His two explosives triggered secondary detonations in their explosives and blew it to pieces. The ball of fire and molten metal rained down on the troops below. The next one was taken out by Katara. She used Waterbending to freeze the people inside and the tower as well.

Appa turned and landed between the last two towers.

The team of three dismounted and looked to each other.

"You two take out that battlement. I've got this one." Hakoda informed them as he made a charge for it. He didn't want the enemy to know he was on his way just yet.

Katara and Sokka moved to their tower and began their attack. Sokka cut the lock holding the doors shut. They knew they were coming. They weren't stupid. The door broke open with ease and Sokka lowered himself into a crouch as his sister threw what water she had left at the enemy. It froze them in place, giving Sokka the chance he needed to destroy the oversized bow and arrow set. Before leaving he killed the people inside that were frozen and then moved to his sister. She didn't bother asking why he did it. Even she would have done it.

The siblings moved outside and watched as their father dealt with his own tower. He had scampered up onto the roof and used their only opening to get in. Smart idea but stupid as well. A fight waged inside before an explosion rocked the tower. Smoke billowed out in waves and the two teens waited for their father to walk out. Alive. But wounded.

Hakoda pushed the doors open and staggered outside. His left hand held his side while the other hand held his weapon. He took two steps before collapsing.

The two teens rushed over to him, calling out his name. By the time they got to him a small puddle of blood had formed on the ground. Hakoda was smiling too. Sokka called for Appa and loaded his father up. They'd give him medical treatment back at the boats.

(-)

It was time for the invasion to start. Aang was supposed to arrive just as soon as it started. With the Fire Nation in disarray and confusion over what was happening, Aang would sneak in and destroy the Fire Lord. Sound plan but nothing was going right. When Aang showed up after being called down by Zentrai, the teen had done what any normal confused teen did. He started asking questions.

"Why aren't you guys with the invasion force? You're supposed to be helping!"

"_No. We're supposed to be guarding you, Aang. Big difference here. Use your head for once. We've been ordered to protect _you_. Not the invasion force. If we were ordered to help out in the invasion we would have been down there right now rather than up here helping you. Besides, do you have any idea on how valuable you are?"_

"Yes. If I die the war is over and the Fire Nation wins. I won't be able to bring balance to the world."

"Not just that, Aang. If you die, the cycle might officially be broken." Naruto sighed and scratched his head. "If you die than the Air Nomads vanish for good and the cycle will end, Aang. That's why you're important and not expandable. You will become expandable once an Airbender has come into this world. If it were up to me, I'd just take you back to the village right now and force you to have sex with all of Rehka's girls just to increase the chance of their being more Air Nomads in the future. But I can't do that because you're a pussy. No offense."

"I take great offense to that."

Naruto decided that being silent now would save him in the long run. With nothing else to say they began their decent into the mouth of the dormant volcano that was the capital of the Fire Nation.

Aang flew while the three Assassins ran through the quiet capital. There was absolutely no one inside its protective walls. That alarmed everyone including Aang. Something was up. But they continued regardless of the current situation. With the whole place turned into a Ghost Town they were able to easily make their way to the Fire Lord's palace.

Zentrai stopped them before they reached the first door and growled.

"_We're turning back. No one's in there. The place is empty. We have to get back to the others and evacuate before something happens. This, mind you, seems highly likely since they saw this coming. They had to know that we were coming if this place is deserted. There's no other explanation."_

The Avatar snorted and charged the doors anyways. Lyra stopped the two older teens before they could stop him and merely shook her head. They knew what he'd do. He'd head back to the others and inform them of this. They'd depart soon after. There was no other choice. The battle was already lost.

(-)

Azula marveled at her own brilliance. Her plan was working just like she thought it would. She had told her father her ideas on the matter shortly after Zuko had left. She didn't trust him. She knew he didn't trust her. That in itself was a sort of twisted sense of trust they had for each. They trusted each other enough not to trust each other. But that was a good thing.

When the invasion was brought up at the war meeting she made sure to inform them that there was a chance the Assassins would come. She had no proof, but the threat was very real to everyone. Anyone who had ever seen or heard about them and lived to tell their tales were often seen as heroes for surviving a fight with one. And if you survived a fight with one of their Elites you were instantly crowned as a Conqueror because you not only survived against one, chances were high that you either fought it to a draw or slew that Assassin. And since Azula had survived her bout with three, they looked to her for guidance when it came to dealing with them.

Her plan was simple. You simply lure them into an area where _you _had the advantage. So far the Assassins had fought and won battle on their terms. It was time to shift that to their favor. They needed a victory here to show the world that the Fire Nation was superior in every way, shape and form. They would make them see there error by destroying them here.

But the invasion was a different story. She had a feeling that told her the Avatar was alive. How do you approach that? With an eclipse coming, he had the ultimate advantage. He had his other forms of bending to aid him in battle while they were near helpless. And of course her father would have the greatest of guards, but they too would be powerless under the power of the eclipse. The only option was to have the actual bunker turned into a decoy. She'd be in the original bunker so that when the enemy shows up, which she knew they would, she'd be able to detour them long enough with her agile grace and cunning mind to stall them long enough for the eclipse to end.

Azula wasn't worried about this part. She could handle that. What she worried about were their troops. Only those with a high enough rank were informed of the eclipse. This was to give some false information that they didn't know about the eclipse when in fact they did. Their troops would slowly but surely pull back so that the invading force could get into the heart of their city. When they were close enough in and the eclipse was over, they'd unveil their greatest surprise ever: the airship fleet they had assembled.

Surely that would be enough to stun them not only long for them to be killed or captured, but to also wreck whatever means they used to get here. And when their transportation was destroyed they'd have their victory.

But something was nagging at her. She felt like she had forgotten something but couldn't put her finger on it. It was nerve wrecking to say the least. But she was determined to see this through to the end. All she had to do was buy her father time for when the eclipse started and was over. Once it was finished he could go down and dispose of the people that had dared to rise up against them, or deal with the Avatar and the Assassins. Either way, she'd win.

(-)

Sokka braced as another explosion shook the ground. His first time in a major battle and all he could think about was his father bleeding in the arms of his sister. He laughed at that. Here he was neck deep in a war that had turned out to be a lot bloodier than what he had imagined it would be, and he was thinking only of his father. When he had originally tried to figure out how his thoughts would go it had been along the lines of when he was going to die and how he was going to die. It wasn't this. This wasn't what he had expected.

"We need to reinforce the East side to prevent a collapse." He looked at the map of where his forces were supposed to be. A scout that had found a perch high on the tower they had taken over had been sending him information every few minutes on where his troops where and what they were doing. "Have twenty of our freshest warriors with ten Earthbenders go to that area. That should allow them to hold that area long enough for us to push through the center. And have our right flank pull back. We don't need them rushing in just yet."

"Are you sure that's a wise idea?" Bato asked. "They're making great time in getting through that area."

"It's gotta be a trap. They're letting them get through."

Sokka looked over the new map that was brought to him. A few more minutes and that side would be too far out and trapped. He needed to pull them back right now. He was lucky that Bato had faith in him and ordered five men to go have them pulled back. But there was still a lot of problem to deal with.

Another explosion shook the ground.

"Felt that one in my bones," Toph said quietly.

Sokka didn't bother looking up or replying. He was too focused on the map. He needed a way in and he needed it now. He wasn't a miracle worker. But he could make some miracles when he needed to.

Another explosion. That was a bit too close for his comfort.

He finally glanced up and looked at their current fort. They took this spot well over ten minutes ago and turned it into their frontline outpost. The tanks that had come with them were wrapped around them to form a protective wall. It had been Sokka's idea. It was better than a wall of earth. They tried that already and they lost it just as quickly as they put it up. He didn't want to die here and he wanted his wounded to be well secure for the time being. This was their outpost and medical field.

He breathed deeply and continued going over the map. Bato was offering advice when he could and telling him the latest news when he got it. They were both heavily relying on each other.

Another explosion and Sokka winced. He felt the flames from that one. They were getting better with their catapults. That wasn't a good thing. But it did offer him one good thing. He saw his father back on his feet with Katara helping him walk. Upon seeing his smiling face, Bato glanced over his shoulder and spotted their chieftain.

"Dad! You're on your feet again."

Hakoda nodded as they made their way to them. Toph brought some earth up to form a chair and protect them from harm with a wall of earth.

"Thanks to your sister. I'm in no condition to fight. But maybe there's some other way I can help."

"The battle is going smoothly and the eclipse hasn't even kicked in yet."

"Let's hope our luck holds out." Katara glanced up at the sun and blinked. "Katara, you seem distracted. Is something wrong?"

"Yeah… Is that… is that Aang?"

Through all of the fireballs that were shot and connected with earth that was thrown to intercept them was Aang. He flew high over the battlefield, almost as though he was surveying it before he landed next to his friends. The sunken look on his face told a tale that neither of them was prepared for, but it was always best to assume that the best had come to them.

"Please tell me you're here because the Fire Lord turned out to be a big wimp and you didn't even need the eclipse to take him down?" Sokka hoped for a better answer than what he got.

Aang shook his head with his eyes closed. "He wasn't home. No one was. The entire palace city was abandoned."

Fear spread across their features. Their biggest advantage was lost. The entire invasion had been a set up. They had been deceived from the very beginning when they made it ashore.

"They knew," Sokka growled out. He felt like punching something. His biggest and brightest idea ever had been all for nothing. Already they had lost well over a hundred lives to this invasion and many more were currently missing. He knew there'd be death, but now it had been a pointless death. He felt ashamed for risking their lives this way.

"It's over. The Fire Lord is probably long gone… Far away on some remote island where he'll be safe during the eclipse."

"No. My instincts tell me he wouldn't go too far. He would have a secret bunker. Somewhere he could go and be safe during a siege, but be close enough to lead his nation."

"If it's an underground secret bunker we're looking for… I'm just the girl to find it!" Toph cheered.

They were getting a plan together to counter the Fire Nation's plan. They could still do this. And Sokka already had the perfect weapon in mind. Reaching into his pocket he withdrew a small flat object with a bunch of hash marks on it and a small needle.

"The Mechanist gave me this timing device. It looks like we've got about ten minutes until the full eclipse. Ten minutes to find the Fire Lord."

"We can still do this! We can still win the day!" Aang added.

"Wait!" Katara cut in. "If they knew we were coming, it could all be a trap. Maybe we should use the time we have left to make sure we all get out of here safely."

The Avatar sighed. Two great options and each with their risks. He really didn't like this part about being the Avatar. Both of them felt like the wrong choice.

"Everyone who's here today came prepared to risk everything for this mission. They know what's at stake. If there's still a chance… if there's still hope… I think they'd want Aang to go for it."

"What do you think?" Sokka asked. "You're the one who has to face the Fire Lord. Whatever you decide, I'm with you."

Aang thought about and then stood up. He had to take a stand. "I've gotta try."

Sokka smiled. "Alright, dad, I'm giving command back to you. I got them this far. Now it's your turn to get them the rest of the way. But, we need an opening. Riding on Appa is good and all, but they might just shoot us down before we can get away from them. They're getting pretty good with those catapults of theirs."

Another explosion tore through the entire battlefield. This one was different. It felt further away and yet closer at the same time. That meant that is a bigger one. Something large had gone off with a lot of force. That got their interests quickly. And having most of the fighting stop would do it as well.

The explosion that tore through the battlefield was sickening in its aftermath. Bodies were mangled and some were torn so horribly apart that they would have no idea on the death toll it caused. Four of their sixteen catapults were out of commission while eight others were unmanned because their crew was dead. The explosion had left a smoking crater in the ground that was eighteen feet wide and four feet deep. The ground center was pretty obvious. It had happened just under a half a kilometer away from them. Too close for comfort.

"Push in and-"

"Wait!" Sokka shouted. He didn't care about archers now. He wanted to see this for himself. He shoved men aside and got to the second row that was up front providing them with shelter. He could see it now through the haze of smoke and burning remains. Three figures stood at the back of the remains of the battlefield and were rather happy by their current appearance. Sokka laughed. "They sure had me worried for a moment."

Sokka turned and rushed back to his friends and family. They understood what they had just been given. They had been given a shot to escape this and get to the volcano to check for the underground bunker. They would most likely remain behind to ensure that they got to the place safely.

(-)

Naruto coughed blood and groaned as his body began protesting to moving. Zentrai was already at his side helping him up, much to the displeasure of his own body.

"Okay, next time I wanna send a clone to blow something up, tell me to never do it again."

"_Would you be surprised if I told you that you've told me that before?"_

"Not really."

Naruto spat out a small blob of blood and wiped his sleeve across his mouth. It was agitating to him to have to taste his own blood. He hadn't done that in what felt like years even though he had done it once at Ba Sing Si.

Through the smoke and flames Naruto and Zentrai spied Aang taking off on Appa with Sokka and Toph in tow. The two gave each other a glance before getting ready to move out. They had to follow him and protect him from harm.

"Assassins? Kill them!"

The two Assassins glanced in the direction of the voice and sighed. They were already surrounded. They had to be off their game for that to happen. Either that or they had just gotten disoriented by the blast that had been set off by Naruto deciding to just blow a hole in their formation.

Even though the threat was real, a good two hundred Fire Nation soldiers armed with spears and swords, meaning that they were None-Benders, the two were focused more heavily on the fact that they couldn't see Lyra.

"Where's Lyra?" Naruto asked rather strangely. The commanding officer was taken back by his comment.

The ground erupted upwards and sent the men into a panic. Two men were instantly killed by the sudden rise of the earth and the rest scattered for a better place to fight Earthbenders.

"_Right there." _Zentrai said with a smile. It was good to have some normalcy at the moment.

Naruto and Zentrai were on them before they had a chance to get to a safe place. Dozens of bodies were broken in a flash. Naruto tore through them with ease, killing each and every one of them in a simple fashion. He twisted neck till they snapped, broke limbs, and with captured weapons, cut a path of destruction that left tens of dozens dead while Zentrai cut through them with his knives. The bodies were stacked high for the world to see like some monument to the damned or as a warning for things to come.

The Fire Nation troops began to back off as the invading force began their march towards them. Naruto paid the invading force no mind. He broke the will of the enemy. That was enough to give them an edge for the time being. They had to get to Aang and protect him. They knew things he didn't. Zentrai had already filled him in on what they had learned just prior to leaving the Palace City. It wasn't abandoned. Not quite. A few people remained behind to protect it. But they weren't the threat. This had been well planned.

"Zentrai, we're moving out." Naruto shouted at his friend. The mute gave no sign that he heard him.

Lyra appeared with soot on her face. She didn't look very happy with the outcome so far.

Fire flew between them. The three dropped into fighting positions and charged the enemy. Fifty Fire Nation soldiers stood their ground.

Naruto exploded forward with amazing speed. He was on them before they could react. He killed five and then a sixth one before they were ready for him. By that time Zentrai had gotten close enough and began cutting a path of destruction through their ranks. They dropped faster than they could count. Lyra finished what was left and growled at the two when they began running again. She could take the running. What she couldn't take was how they were doing this. They were moving away from the main force and towards the mountain. She knew why, but it just irked her to know that she was playing follow the leader with them.

(-)

Zuko was ready for it. He had made the final preparations for it. He had the letter to Mai in one hand and his bag in the other. He'd leave her with a letter stating this was it until the war either ended or he died in combat and was hopefully allowed to see her again. He didn't know which would come first, so he told her he'd see her again when the war was over and his nation was safe. Sure she'd probably see this as an act of betrayal after his words to her, but he had very little choice. He needed to do this. He knew his destiny. He knew why he was always so angry. This was all he could do. He was the Fire Nation's last true hope after Fire Lord Ozai was gone.

"I'm sorry Mai." He whispered her name before leaving.

He had one last thing to do before he could leave. Once it was out of the way he was free.

The prince grabbed the doorknob and turned it lightly before leaving. He knew where Mai was and he was happy she was away from this. It had been his wish that she be away during this. His sister agreed if only for her own ends. Mai had been sent to Ember Island for her own safety. She'd probably kill him later for doing so. He laughed at the irony of that. Trying to protect the woman he loved, even from herself, and she would probably hate or kill him for it. That sounded just about right in his mind.

Zuko made his way through the hallways of his home before reaching his room. He carefully opened the door and entered without alerting anyone. Not like it really mattered. Everyone had been evacuated. If his father learned he was here he'd be mad at him for being so foolish as to stay and fight an army of this size. He was royalty after all and his blood would be on the line.

At the foot of his bed was a painting. It was a painting of his mother. He loved her. She loved him. He hadn't seen here in years. It felt like a lifetime since he had last seen her. It probably had been.

The scarred Firebender took to his knees and lowered his head in shame. "I know I've made some bad choices. But today I'm going to set things right."

He gave her image one final look before rising up and taking his gear. He only packed his clothes and some food for this trip. He wasn't even sure he'd survive it, but it would do for now. He dawned his cloak and strapped his gear to his body. He gave the painting one final glance before departing. It was time to face his father.

Zuko considered going and getting Iroh out first, but soon decided against it. The guards might be better without their bending to deal with him. He needed every advantage he could get. So he'd put it off until after he dealt with his father. Besides, Iroh would talk him out of this. He knew he would. And then he'd scold him for not having an exit plan. Not like he really needed one. The Fire Nation would be too busy dealing with the invasion to care about his escape plan. And hopefully they would be too busy to notice him breaking out his uncle.

So much was riding on his hope.

(-)

The Boulder raised his arms and summoned earth to defend him from a wave of wave. It was blocked effortlessly and allowed him a chance to go on the offensive. With Hippo at his side, the two slapped the earth and brought down a single battlement that was trying to snipe the advancing forces. It crumbled into dust as it tumbled down the sloop. Its own momentum had destroyed it.

A blast of fire from the top forced him to evade. He jumped to the side, raised some earth for a quick defense, and blasted it outwards shortly after it blocked the attacks. It sailed high above the entrenched enemies and forced them to scatter when it punctured through the worn out metal. Boulder watched two people fall down with half of their heads crushed in. They had probably been standing too close to his attack or were just unlucky and got hit by metal shrapnel. He favored the latter option. Sounded better.

Bato gave a cheer and they were on the next part of the road that led to the palace.

Boulder and Hippo used Earthbending to scale the wall that was before them and link back up with the advancing troops. When they reached them they were quickly put back into action. They brought down two more battlements before noticing something strange. The commander that was opposing them was checking the sun. He wondered what that meant but decided against it. The battle was happening right now and he needed to stay focused.

Moving with Hippo and a few other Earthbenders, they brought down more battlements and provided protection for the others as they made their way to the top of the volcano.

Fire spewed forward. Before Boulder could react someone was in front of him and blocking the shot with a shield. The Warrior turned and threw his spear at the attacker. It stuck with a loud crack as it tore through Fire Nation armor and punctured flesh. Boulder jumped forward and blasted the lone attacker with all the earth he could push out. The body was destroyed on impact and thrown off the cliff. The soldier that saved him flashed him a smile and then continued on _her _way. Boulder blinked and then smiled. It was good to know how far people were willing to go to keep him alive as well.

"Stay focused," Bato ordered as he charged up the hill.

Boulder nodded and continued on his way. He couldn't get distracted right now.

The famous wrestler moved up the mountain of earth and got to the front of the line where the other Earthbenders were. They were so close to the top of the volcano when fire rained down on them. Shields were snapped into place and formed a phalanx of overlapping shields to protect everyone from frontal attacks. Earthbenders raised earth and too shelter behind it. Those that were fast enough or clever enough to dodge did so. Boulder watched those that were unable to find shelter or bring up some sort of protection get cut down.

The hail of fire stopped and Bato did a body count. Eighteen dead. Too many for his books, but he wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. They had been too far out to get back and had gotten themselves killed. He was responsible for leading the charge, but they had it coming. A lesson had just been learned again. Stay focused and follow orders to the letter. If you could do that you'd come back alive.

The shield formation collapsed and the troops continued their fast charge. The eclipse was only moments away from starting. It was time to end this war once and for all.

(-)

The white haired youth sighed as he waited for the boat to get him ashore. It wasn't irritating or anything just waiting for the boat to get there, but it was annoying on some level. He wanted to get ashore now because he had something to do. He wanted to get there now before something happened. This was his last chance at getting out of the place. It was the final step to being free. And he wanted freedom.

"We'll be arriving in a few minutes."

He turned his eye to the speaker. It was a tall man with a cloak that covered most of his form. His face was covered by a black mask that was devoid of any openings for him to see. He was flanked by another person, one that wore Fire Nation robes and was covered in armor. He couldn't discern anything about either of them.

The white haired male gave them masked man another glance over before turning back to the land that was coming up. This land was part of the Fire Nation but had also been the home of the Air Nomads as well. Everyone was heading towards the outlying colonies where the Fire Nation had set up villages. They had put them there because they had needed to expand and it was their own land.

Because of the battle that was being wagged right now everyone from the Palace Capital had been sent to the colonies for their own protection. Most of the people had just decided to go to Ember Island and take a vacation because they felt like they had deserved it.

"Thank you for sharing." The masked man announced. He gave a glance in the direction of their white haired man and nodded curtly towards him. He was shocked and did the same before looking away. "Let me ask you something, old friend. Why do people kill?"

"I'm not sure I understand, sir."

"Why do we, as humans, kill other humans? I know it is an old question we all want answered. But have you ever stopped to consider why it has never been answered?" The other man sighed. "It is because humans are evil creatures and we ourselves are incapable of answering such questions. It is because we simple aren't smart enough to answer them on our own."

"Is that what you believe in?"

"It's what we all believe in. Though, I for one believe in a great many things." He turned back to the white haired youth only to see him gone. He shrugged indifferently and looked out at sea. There were dozens of Fire Navy ships all heading out to help in the fighting. "For instance, I believe in the order of Chaos. I believe that if you want results, chaos is the first step to achieving your goal."

The escort ships that were loaded with Fire Nation troops detonated into a ragging inferno. Screams echoed from the destruction before being drowned out by the crew of the ship they were on began screaming. Mass panic ensued as everyone fought to get below deck or to get answers. What few guards were on the ship were left in a daze as they tried to figure out what to do.

The guards began to force people below deck while secretly killing the other guards that didn't have a white insignia on the back of their armor.

The white haired man jumped over onto the side of the boat and clung to it like his life depended on it. He hadn't expected that the ships would come under attack. He had thought that they'd be left alone. Who were these people and why were they targeting them?

He took a quick glance back into the boat and saw the two men he had seen before. They were standing calmly on the deck with their hands behind their back. The masked man removed his hood, showing off his black hair while the other kept his mask on.

"And that's just one easy way to cause panic and to get your more torture victims, Den. Never underestimate the power of fear."

"I'll keep that in mind, Calamity. But what are we going to do about the passengers? Most of them have no clue on anything I actually need. Only the wife of General Bujing is the only one here worth mentioning. The others are of little concern to me. Besides, our orders from our mute friend were to get to Legacy Corrupted for an update on the war. We weren't ordered to capture these people."

The white haired youth ducked back down closed his eyes. _What? Mute friend? _He sighed. That made no sense unless it was a cover name and noticed that the ship hadn't changed course yet. _Are they heading towards the former Air Temple as well? Naruto… where are you? _

He sighed and dropped down into the water. He could swim the rest of the way. He was happy he had great lungs and endurance or it might have been suicide. But staying on a captured boat could also lead to death as well.

(-)

Forward positions were lost. Nothing was left to stop the invasion force from getting into the Palace City. They quickly surrounded the city and dealt with any all resistance inside. Firebenders were quick to give up when they realized that they had lost their ability to Firebend. What might have taken hours to take over took only minutes. In less than two minutes they had the entire place secured and under their control. But no one outside of what little guards remained stood in their way. Those that were captured were quickly dealt with by those that were ready to show no mercy.

(-)

From his perch high above the Palace City, the commander and soon to be Airship Commander watched as the invasion forces took over their land. He felt disgusted to know that they had allowed this to happen. They should have pushed them back with these things the very moment they had arrived. But Fire Lord Ozai heeded the words of his daughter. They wouldn't engage them in combat until the eclipse was over. It was hard to believe that they had managed to figure out just when it would happen.

The man sighed. That just proved to him which side the Spirits were on. He wouldn't voice it, but he knew this war was a joke right from the start. They were disrupting the balance of the world and the Spirits were taking a side. They were siding with the resistance. Those that would oppose them the hardest, in his mind, weren't those of flesh and blood, but of a power so beyond them that they could destroy their way of life with but a thought. It scared him to know that they might have this power, even if it was only a legend. But to be tempting their wrath was another thing all together.

"Sir, the invasion forces are surrounding the Palace City. Are we to assume our next part of the plan now?"

He nodded grimly.

This was the part he didn't like at all. Not because he would see this as a senseless slaughter, but because they would be dropping bombs on their own land. That just didn't sit right with him to do. But it was for the best. A pest had taken root on their land and it needed to be taken care swiftly and mercilessly. Historians might look back at this day as a day of despair that the Fire Nation turned its own weapons against their own land, but what other choice was there? Engaging them in a ground battle with so little forces was suicide right now. They had no other choice.

"All hands are to get to their battle positions. Prepare for combat."

The troops moved and the man looked back at the troops. He didn't feel bad for them. He felt bad for his land. Not for them.

(-)

Ozai wasn't ready for everything. He hadn't planned on this.

The invasion force was being dealt with, but the Assassins had definitely appeared on the battlefield and at other locations. They had been hit at more than a dozen other spots, all of them crucial in their daily lives. But the enemy had also begun attacking people at Ember Island where he had sent more than a dozen of his most important officials under the promise that it would safe for them there.

He might have seen this as a loss on his end but he saw this more as an opening move in a bigger game that was in play. He had never liked some of the people that were probably now dead. They had always been a hindrance to him. They asked to govern some of the captured land. He gave it to them. They complained that it was unruly after it was captured and that people were rising up against them. He told them that more troops were on the way. They never listened. They grew infuriated with him until they decided to take measures into their own hands. Needless to say, he would be happy with their deaths.

But the threat of the Assassins was too great. They had resources like that of a fully grown Nation. They were a complete Military Nation with the ability to deploy a moment's notice. They had spies everywhere just like they did, but better. They were the greatest threat to him and his rule. That was why he had wanted Naruto and Zentrai to join him. Their added power would not only bolster his forces but he might also be able to keep the other Assassins off his back. Years of fighting and being forced to sleep with one eye open had been a major downer for him.

His guards twitched and his fear grew. Was one of them in the room right now?

The door to his chamber opened up and Zuko stood in the doorway. The look in his eyes told him that his son wanted to speak with him about something important.

(-)

Zentrai grabbed the strongest of the men and stared at him. He was rather bored at the moment, another way of knowing that this was normal for them. He had never been in a full scale battle like this. He had done these sorts of things with usually his small team where they had the advantage. Nothing was ever thrown out to the unknowns. All unknowns were covered.

But a battle such as this left a lot of unknowns. He didn't like them. He thought that those would change him. He was grateful they did not.

"_Tell us how to get to the Fire Lords' secret bunker." _The man gasped as Zentrai tightened his grip on him and then released him when he thought about the route to get to it. _"Thanks for telling me. Now I'll reward you." _A knife entered his throat and killed him.

Zentrai looked back at his two comrades and smiled. He showed them the route that the man thought about and began his run towards the Fire Lords' bunker.

Naruto took his time. The eclipse was about to be over in a matter of minutes, but things had already gone wrong. They knew about the invasion. They also seemed to know about the eclipse with their battlefield tactics if that was any clue. So even though the entire thing was a wash, Naruto had a feeling that the worst wasn't over and he wanted to take his time. Besides, they were closer to the bunker than what he was willing to enjoy.

The three got to the bunker just in time for it to be official to the small Avatar Team. Azula had known about the invasion for months and was now talking down to them as she was captured by Toph's Earthbending.

The Avatar Team stared at the Fire Nation Princess as she suddenly smirked.

Lyra glanced at the ceiling and smirked. Two Dai Li Agents were on the roof. They broke her restraints and Lyra threw more earth forward as if to announce their presence. The two Dai Li Agents moved to intercept it and were stopped by Zentrai as he pointed a few swords at them.

"Azula," Naruto cooed. "It's been too long."

She hissed a curse as her composure was lost for a moment. The Dai Li Agents were at a loss. They knew they couldn't win in a fight against them. But they had orders to protect Azula from the princess herself. And she was currently powerless to defeat them.

The mute moved up to the front of the pack and stared at the two agents. _"Get out of the way or else." _They looked back at their princess and then to the mute. He waved a hand and they dropped with blood squirting out of their necks. He sighed and raised the other hand towards Azula. _"I'm not one for torture or information gathering. I'm not really good at it. I'm been one to enjoy watching people get tortured though."_

Azula snarled at the fallen and then smirked at them.

"Thank you for doing my job for me, Zentrai. I was aiming to kill them after this. Seeing me at my weakest isn't acceptable."

Lyra sighed. "This isn't getting us anywhere." She threw a punch into Azula's face, knocking her out of the earth prison that she had put her in. With her one arm she grabbed Azula up by her hair and slammed her into the wall. "Start talking. Where is the Fire Lord?" A knife appeared in Azula's hand and was quickly taken away. The price was a hard palm thrust into her back. "Don't do that again. It's not very good for your health."

"You're not allowed to kill me, anyways. You do want what's best for me, right?"

"Not really." Naruto patted Sokka on the shoulder. "You guys did good to get here on your own. Now get out of here, Sokka. You have to link back up with the others and get off the island as fast as you can. She knew about the invasion and there's not enough time to stop the Fire Lord before the sun comes out. We're sunk. We'll be right behind you guys."

"You were sunk from the very beginning. You never thought about the fact that we had spies as well."

Naruto laughed.

"_We're not as sunk as you are, Azula." _The mute stepped closer to the captured princess and grabbed her hair. _"Leave now. We've got this."_

Sokka sighed and then agreed. They were sunk.

The sword wielding teen turned and began running. Toph and Aang began to follow not too much later. When they left Naruto turned to Azula and smirked. He had won inside of his loss.

"Now, Azula, you're going to tell us everything we want to know."

"Not happening."

Lyra's grip tightened and the woman hissed in pain as she was forced to take a knee.

"Don't worry. I've got a friend that would enjoy torturing someone like you for information, Azula. In fact, I can think of a few methods he'll probably use. Of course he'll rape you for the information and I don't blame him. I'd rape you too, but I don't have the time and you are beneath me."

Lyra grunted as Azula began to fight her. Zentrai placed a knife at her throat and she stopped struggling. _"Azula, where was the airship fleet built?" _He smiled. Thoughts raced through her mind faster than what she could have stopped. He knew the location. _"Thank you, Azula. You've been a big help to me. Though, I doubt that is the only location."_

She spat at them.

Naruto sighed and kicked her in the stomach. Her armor shattered from the impact. She coughed and then began to scream. Her pride wasn't on the line. Pain was pain. Naruto grabbed what remained of her armor and tore it away, leaving her naked from the hips up. She tried to cover up but Naruto and Lyra tore her away from her attempts and pinned her to the wall.

"Do you remember listening to the other argued with Zentrai about rape and how it's a serious thing? Would you like to experience it?"

She smiled.

"_If you rape her, we'll be taking her back to the village." _Zentrai informed him. A victory ran through Azula's mind. She would win even if she was captured and she'd be able to bear Naruto's child and gain his power for the Fire Nation. Bastard child or not, his power would be welcomed with open arms, even if she was threatened to be taken to their village. _"Besides, we can make use of her blue flame. We can use her as a breeding stock for more Firebenders with Blue Flames. Even if the blue flame is rare, we can still have Assassins that are Firebenders, even if the chance if having a Blue Firebender is one in five."_

Azula lost her composure. Zentrai smirked. She was fully aware of her situation now. Panic was slowly setting in and she would soon lose all of her composure.

The other two Assassins noted her calm composure had gone away and began getting ready for anything. Her blood being used for furthering their abilities and prowess as Elite Assassins of the Dark disturbed her and hit her on a level deeper than her pride.

The mute smirked as the woman began to get desperate in her thoughts. She was fully aware that the mute was reading her mind but she didn't care. She was trying to find a solution to getting out of this. Part of her told her there wasn't one. Another part screamed that there was a solution and that she could escape with little to no injuries.

Azula continued to try and devise a plan of action before a single thought raced through her mind. Zentrai cringed and she felt it.

"Ty Lee is dead."

Naruto blinked, but not out of a shock. He blinked because he was confused. His confusion passed and he smirked. "Still trying to buy me off, huh, Azula? That didn't work last time. Why do you think it would work this time?"

"I'm not trying to buy you off. I'm letting you know that she's dead."

"Most likely by your hands," Naruto retorted heatedly. He grabbed Azula by her hair and began dragging her. "We're not going to sit here and chit chat all day long. We have a time limit here. And rather not deal with Firebenders on the way out if I can avoid it."

Azula let herself get dragged after Naruto got angry about her fighting him and decked her twice in the face. She was knocked out on the second blow but awoke a few minutes later with blood draining from her nose and mouth. He had busted a tooth out and broke her nose in the process. He wasn't very happy either if his constant tugging on her was proof.

Eventually he got fed up with tugging on her to make her keep up and bound and gagged her to keep her quiet and shoved her up front.

"Walk," Lyra announced as she took over. Zentrai flanked the princess and watched as Azula stiffened in protest. "I said move, whore!" Lyra backhanded her with all her might. Azula hit the ground and blinked tears out of her eyes. For a one armed woman she hit pretty hard.

Lyra grabbed her up and shoved her forward. With a gag in her mouth, much to Zentrai's amusement since it was shutting her up; Azula had little fight in her. She was calculating her escape. They were being too lineate with her, but none of them really cared. They wanted to see what she'd do and see just how long it might take for her realize she was well and truly screwed at the moment.

Two minutes of walking and they were finally outside. The eclipse was officially over and the Airships had finally taken to the sky. Azula felt that victory was assured until Naruto looked to his friend gave him a nod.

"I'll go protect the Avatar. You take are new whore to Legacy Corrupted and deal with here there. I think I know where we'll be going to get away. And if all else fails, just use Shibaru to find Rai. Those two could find each other on separate ends of the world."

Azula began to squirm again and was quickly put down by Zentrai. He struck a pressure point and silenced her before she could start trying to speak. With a crack of his neck he threw her over his shoulder and departed. He had a way out of here.

Naruto gave Lyra a glance and nodded. "We're sprinting this. Don't fall behind."

(-)

Zentrai moved with great speed towards his exit point. His goal was to commandeer a ship and depart with his prisoner in tow. Of course it was never easy for him. He was a man of few words when it came to stealing stuff he wanted. He never knew when to stop. He never knew when the give it a rest and just let it go. For him, bigger was better in every way. If it wasn't big, it wasn't worth his time. If it wasn't mean, it wasn't worth his time. If the stakes weren't high enough, it wasn't worth his time. For him it was the thrill of the hunt and the chase. It was the fear of knowing you were on the edge and so close to death that you thought it was over and that all hope was gone. That was why he enjoyed things never being easy.

Of course things were easy this time around and he was easily carrying a prisoner that everyone would fight to protect and take back without actually fighting him. They'd negotiate or try to sneak attack him from behind.

The only problem now was that no one was here. They were all on their floating ships and raining down death on the invasion force. He was all alone and left with little resistance as he sped towards the dock where the ships were located.

From his perch high above the dock he spied movement and smiled. Twenty men were stationed down at the dock to guard the only remaining boat. The others had been deployed to look for survivors after some strange explosions out at sea. Zentrai wondered who was responsible for it. He could think of a few people, namely Ghost and Reaper, being the case, but that didn't there M.O. Yeah they liked to do new things, but blowing up boats at sea, even for no reason other to watch them burn, was beyond them.

He figured on a dozen people that might be involved in it, but decided that he could do that later. After all, he had a job to do.

Shibaru licked her lips at the promise of fresh meat. She was rather hungry. He wondered if her hunger and desire to eat would actually allow her to kill of the men down there without a problem. While he would have liked to know if that was possible, he decided against it.

Jumping down the slope with Azula in tow, he skidded until the enemy spotted him. A dozen thoughts race through their minds before figuring out who and what he was. He smirked and threw daggers at them. The closest went down without a fight. The ones in the back began to rush him after noticing he had their princess. Shibaru jumped up out of nowhere and began biting the enemy to death. In a matter of seconds the battle was over and Shibaru was left eating the dead, armor and all.

The mute glanced around and took over the boat. He couldn't sense anyone onboard it and took over the controls. He glanced out the window and sighed. Shibaru was trying to stack up the dead into a pile so she could have something to eat on the way. Normally he would have helped her but they were on a time schedule.

"_Shibaru, get over here. We've got to go." _

The large beast whined but soon complied. She understood how serious of a situation they were in. That didn't mean she wouldn't take her time either. With her large maw she grabbed two bodies with one bite and hauled them into the ship before going back for seconds. Zentrai shook his head as she came to a stop over Azula. The young woman was in the process of waking up again. He considered knocking her out again but was quickly against it. She was too weak to do anything at the moment and with Shibaru dropping the dead bodies on her it only served to humiliate her even more.

The mute sighed. Things had been too easy for him. He didn't like it and he had a feeling that it was set up.

"_You will see what others refused to see…" _Azula's mind raced with those words.

Zentrai looked up and blinked. The ceiling was covered with writing. He recognized it almost after two minutes of starring as he made sense of the meaning behind it. Calamity had done this. He had staged it all. He had forced this boat to be here and had killed off everyone inside say for the guards that were outside and used their blood to write the message. It was very cleaver on his end, but also very disturbing to know how far he could think ahead.

The door slid open and Zentrai felt the presence of another mind that was very confused. He turned and spied a lone guard looking at them with blinking eyes. Zentrai killed him with a dagger to the throat and shook his head. Azula was fully awake now.

"_You're guards and soldiers are nothing but jokes." _He set sail and began making the course corrections before grabbing the princess up and taking her to the lower levels of the ship. He bound and gagged her before putting a meat sack over her body to keep her from Firebending. If she did that now she'd end up burning herself rather badly. And with the gag in her mouth she couldn't bit her tongue to kill herself. She was too prideful to do that anyways. Once she was fully secured he smiled. _"I should rape you just for the hell of it, Azula." _She panicked. _"Don't worry though. I'm not going to. I'll let the others do that once you're secured at our village. Now rest well. You're going to be __**very **__busy tomorrow morning." _He patted her check through the bag and left. Azula began to cry.

(-)

"Try to find some cover! I think we're about to see some bombs!"

Sokka stepped back and allowed Toph to bend the earth over them to form a shield for the potential of bombs. Others did the same and waited for the bombs. Those in Earth Tanks tried to continue down the path to get to the beach where the submarines were located and were knocked around.

Aang sighed and gulped nervously as the bombs began hitting the ground around them. Their shelter grumbled and buckled under the explosive force of the bombs. Toph raised some earth to keep their cover up and fully supported before it could fall on them. Appa growled in protest as he felt the earth slowly begin to fall around him. Aang and Katara worked together to keep him calmed down.

The explosions stopped and the airships began moving on.

"Why aren't they turning around to attack us again?" Katara asked.

"They're heading for the beach." Aang thought about the situation before it hit him. "They're going to destroy the submarines!"

"How are we all going to escape?"

"We're not." Hakoda informed his son.

Sokka punched his fist into his palm. "Then our only choice is to stand and fight. We have the Avatar. We could still win."

"Yes. With the Avatar we _could _still win on another day. You kids have to leave. You have escape on Appa together."

"What? We can't leave you behind. We won't leave any of you behind."

"You're only chance in the long run. You and Sokka have to go with Aang somewhere safe. It's the only way to keep hope alive."

"The youngest of our group should go with you. The adults will stay behind and surrender. We'll be prisoners, but we'll survivor this battle." Bato informed them.

"They're at the beach already!"

A duel explosion tore through them. One happened at the beach where the Swamp Folks were dealing with the bombs that were dropped. The other came from above where a group of soldiers were destroyed by twin fireballs. An avalanche ensued and forced the Earthbenders to make cover for everyone to be safe. When the dust settled, Naruto and Lyra appeared.

"We're leaving, Aang. The battle is lost. You cannot win this fight anymore."

"I know." Naruto looked to the others for a moment and noted their reactions. They had already fallen into the idea of surrendering. He had no problems with that. "We're going to load up the youngest of our group and take them with us. They're too young to be in a Fire Nation prison. Can you give us the time to do that while we get ready to depart?"

"Yes and no." Lyra stepped over to those that were coming and shook her head. "Naruto can cover you guys, but only Toph, Sokka, Naruto, Aang, and I will be leaving. You all knew that this might also happen and yet you brought kids to the battlefield. I'm sorry, but they either stay or we kill them. It's that simple."

Teo and The Duke seemed hurt by her statement but accepted it. They had known the risks and came anyways. It was there fault.

The Elite Assassin turned and created his clones in silence. "Take out as many Fire Nation troops as you can. I don't care how you do it. Just buy these people some time to rest and get ready for what is to come. If you can, survive and stay hidden. Find out where they're going and stay hidden. When you learn something of importance, notify me." They nodded. Two rushed off in a different direction while three pushed forward. Naruto turned back to face the others as they mounted Appa. "My clones will take out as many of the Fire Nation soldiers as they can. Surrender if you wish. But my clones will fight on until they have fallen."

Naruto crawled on top of Appa and didn't look back.

They departed as the fighting started between Naruto's clones and the Fire Nation troops.

(-)

The three clones eyed their opposing enemies with neutral eyes. They could have easily already gone into hiding and blended in with the approaching Fire Nation troops as their own warriors but decided against it. Two on the inside was better than five on the inside. So they chose to fight.

"Niga'toka Shi, lord of hunters and mother of blades, grant that my hands be steady and my mind sharp. Grant me aim that will remain true and never falter. Guide my feet with swift winds and warm shadows. Should the worst come to pass and I lay dead, grant me forgiveness for my times past." They chanted together as they readied their weapons.

The head clone looked to the two behind him and gave nods. "I am the Alpha." He readied his clawed blades and jumped towards the closest group of enemies.

"I am the Omega." The clone readied a large spear captured from the ground when the fighting had gone uphill.

"I am the End." The clone readied a chain-sickle and moved to the side.

Alpha moved with near blinding speed. He cleaved a path of destruction up the hill and landed between a group of ten that spread wide to face off with him. He glanced around them for a moment before moving in for the kill. Two men raised their arms to Firebend and were killed before they could do so. The others fired. He jumped. Avoid it their attacks. Landed and began killing them without mercy.

Three remained and moved forward to engage him as others poured out from over the hill to take him down. Alpha spun, cleaved the air with his weapons and severed heads from necks. The dead dropped and he moved on.

The troops focused on Alpha and were speared from behind as Omega got in behind them with his captured spear. They noticed him too late in the fighting and were brought down by his hit and run tactics. Omega smirked as he speared dozens of troops with ease and left them on the ground dead or dying.

Eight moved up from behind and caught him off guard. They attacked a moment too late. He dove to the side and avoided their attacks. Popping up and throwing the spear he skewered two with one shot and began throwing whatever knives and sharp objects he could find on the ground.

Fire raced down from the sky and pinned him down. He was cornered and left no escape route. They Fire Nation troops closed in and began attacking without mercy. He took out dozens of troops before he finally brought down.

Alpha watched as his clone brother was destroyed and rushed in with berserker fury. The troops were stunned as he dropped down into their faces and began cleaving them apart. One pushed him down but was suddenly without a head as End came in and saved him with his blooded chain-sickle. They stood back to back as the Fire Nation troops circled around them.

"A little over a fifty dead, maybe more, and **now **they get smart." End commented as he noted their stances and how far they were from them. They weren't taking any chances now. They were keeping their distance. "So what now?"

"We fight until we die." Alpha rushed forth and began his slaying anew.

End sighed and began his slaying again. They parted and began their gruesome task that was already completed. The Avatar team and the Assassins were already off Fire Nation soil. They were most likely already so far gone that they wouldn't be tracked for months.

Four Fire Nation soldiers threw explosives at End and began their attempt to deal with him. Punching the earth, End shattered the ground he was walking on and fell. Their attacks missed him. End smirked and jumped onto the wall of earth as he fell and stopped before running straight up it. He jumped with all his might as he reached the top. The four troops opened fire on him in an attempt to stop him before he touched down.

End spun his weapon and blocked their attacks. He hit the ground slicing off one of their arms from the closest one as the other three scattered. One reached for a sword on its side and took a swing at him. End deflected it with his sickle before another one grabbed him from behind. End elbowed that one in the gut and knocked him into another one that was in the process of Firebending at him. He dodged it with minimal effort as the man was knocked to the ground. He grabbed his foot and dodged another fire blast before spinning and throwing the man into his three companions.

The sword wielding soldier jumped forward and stabbed its sword into End's chest. End smirked before dying in a cloud of smoke.

The sword wielding soldier smiled at his victory before a look of fear crossed his companions faces. He turned and was killed when Alpha stabbed his blades into his eyes and exited out the back of his head.

Alpha dropped the body and stared at the troops that were surrounding him. He shook his head in sympathy for them. They would fight until they were either dead or he was dead. A lot of pointless deaths would ensue at this rate and he knew it.

Even if he had been created to aid in the escape of the Avatar, he felt different from the others like he was his own person. The survival instincts to live and see tomorrow pushed him forward to fight. His death wouldn't be avoided.

He charged head long into battle and fought until he had killed all of the troops. More showed up to take their place. A single clone that could die at one hit stood tall until it finally gave up and was hit. It smirked through all the blood and grim that covered its face just before the killing blow was struck. Its memories were transferred to the original that grimaced when he took them in.

(-)

The white haired youth gasped for air as he climbed ashore. He pulled himself closer to the rocks and settled down on the beach. His swim hadn't gone as well as what he had hoped for, but it had gone about as well as he had expected: Completely and totally not to his liking. Much like how everything else went in his life, this was just further proof that his actions might be the death of him.

After two hours of resting he was ready to move out again.

He walked for miles before coming to a town that was owned by the Fire Nation. He sighed and went in. He had to get something to eat and a fresh set of clothes if he could.

(-)

"What do you mean my daughter is missing?"

The Black Ops commander snorted at his tone. Ozai wasn't very happy and he wouldn't hold that against him. He had seen it a many times in the past when political leaders lost their loved ones. They became insane with grief until they became total insane and forgot how to run their country. But he needed him to focus right now.

"Sir, understand that we'll get her back. But you need to focus on running your nation. Let me and my people do this." He fiddled with his cloak and sighed. "Trust me to get the job done, sir. Just as I trust you to run your nation."

"You said you had everything taken care of! You said this would be easy and that the invasion would be quickly dealt with. You even said that my daughter would be perfectly safe with her option to face the enemy head on. You said that you could deal with the Assassins! And you failed me!"

"You're wrong, sir. I never failed you. I did my job to the highest of my abilities and to my promise. I never said I would protect you daughter. Out of all the things I had prepared for, the absence of the Assassins wasn't one. And even then, we never had confirmed reports that they were even here."

"That blond headed demon showed up and slaughtered four hundred men! He slew more men than anyone else! He pushed back an advancing line with three clones of himself! And you're telling me that the Assassins weren't spotted?"

"Sir, with all due respect, I hadn't planned on _his _appearance! We never knew what he was capable of either. What we do know right now is that he is gone and that he wasn't responsible for the capture of your daughter. Just because we haven't found her yet doesn't mean she's not here. Now, I will focus on finding your daughter. You focus on running your nation."

The man turned without a word and left the Fire Lord behind. He had more pressing matters to attend to.

"You seem… agitated." The Black Ops commander narrowed his eyes to the left and stared at the shadows. "Not that I blame you. You have to deal with him breathing down your back."

"It is hard." He closed his eyes and smiled. "Did you find anything?"

"It seems that our primary target took her." He paused and red eyes stared out of the darkness. "He's out there. He's alive and he has Azula. If we can find her, we can find him. Just give us the word and we'll take care of him."

"No. Let him continue to grow. We have all the time in the world. Now remain hidden and take care of whoever speaks out just like you always have."

The Black Ops commander continued his path down the hall. This meeting had never happened.

(-)

Calamity sat in his throne. He called it his throne because he was the leader of this area. Throughout the entire world the Assassins had set up bases in key parts of the world. They had set them up in the hopes of keeping the peace when the Avatar couldn't and to continue gathering information on all battle plans that the other Nations might use against each other.

Of course it was also used for other things. This place had been used as a means of capturing high value targets and interrogating them for further use. Some were even brainwashed and turned back to the world to serve as their personal puppets for later use. Of course this was very seldom used during times of peace. But it was something they did quite often as of late. With war they used it almost regularly.

But today he was happy. He was happy because things were finally about to get interesting. A new piece to the already large board had just been added. Some people would view this time as a game changer. He didn't. He viewed it as a chance for the greatest of possibilities. If they could turn Azula into one of their slaves then he'd be set for life. He'd turn her on the Fire Nation and just watch the world fall around them.

The door opened and he smiled behind his mask. Zentrai stepped in with a neutral expression. Without a word he sat down at the table and waited for his masked friend to speak.

Calamity removed his mask; his eyes closed as he did, and sat it down on the desk. Zentrai closed his eyes and opened them just as Calamity did the same. Calamity's cyan colored eyes stared blankly into Zentrai's and shown with wisdom far greater than what anyone would have suspected of him.

"Did you enjoy my miracle, Lord Zentrai?"

"_To be honest, I hated it. But you've proven to me that you're a capable leader." _The mute looked away. Looking into his eyes was a scary thing. Zentrai had never been able to fully look him in the eyes. It was the whole reason that he wore a mask. No one could do it for some reason. _"I trust you've already gotten the idea of what I want done?"_

"Naturally." Calamity took a deep breath before speaking again. "You want me to break her and gain all the information I can from her. But that won't be as easy as you're expecting it to be."

"_I'm not expecting it to be easy. That's why you brought Den with you, isn't it? You knew that not only would I be given a chance to get her, but also where I would go. It's scary that you're that smart."_

"No. What's scary is that you're predictable."

The mute rolled his eyes for a moment before returning to the topic at hand. _"I will be staying here for a few days to rest and get back to full strength. Shibaru will need something to eat, but I'm pretty sure you already worked that out." _He nodded happily and the mute sighed. _"Do you ever have a moment when you're not prepared for anything?"_

"All the time. I just choose to never show it." He shrugged and pulled his hood up. "We've got more pressing matters to attend to. I'm sure you know what I'm referring too?" The mute nodded grimly. How he found out would forever haunt him. "I'm honored that you're selecting me for the village leader and all, but my skills would be put to waste there and it wouldn't keep me very entrained. We both know what happens when I get bored."

Zentrai nodded regrettable. Calamity was prone to random acts when he was bored. If he got bored it was trouble. Lucky for him that being leader was never boring when you were in charge of not only the village but also the entire Assassin Ranks, missions, and wellbeing. There were a lot of things to do that would keep him occupied, but he could still get very bored.

"_I'm not going to ask how you found out about what I was aiming to do. But that doesn't matter to me. What matters right now is that you continued to make your miracles. I'll be sending you back out as soon as I can get Rehka to start using you more often in battle. I know she doesn't like you because of how you treat others and use them on the battlefield, but it is because of those reasons that I nominated you to be our new leader. It has nothing to do with Rehka. She's a stand-in and she knew it right from the beginning. We needed to run a selection process to choose the real leader for what might be ahead. In times of peace, should it happen as Iroh believed it would in his dream, we might be in for a lot trouble."_

Calamity nodded grimly. He had already begun planning strategies for when the war was over. He had come up with a dozen scenarios where rebellion took the place of war. Those that only knew how to fight would continue until everything spiraled down into nothingness and the world ended. In his mind it was better to have the war continue going. But that was just his personal opinion since peace would be a long way away and have war continuing would be better for everyone. His reason was simple. When one power vanished, another would come in and take its place.

"_We'll face your idea later when we have more time. For now we need to stay focused on the task at hand. Go begin torturing Azula anyway you can. I need to speak with Den before he begins."_

The mute rose and left before another word could be spoken. He had more pressing matters to attend to anyways.

Calamity sighed. "Never a dull moment." He rose and followed a moment later. He had to make a theatrical entrance as always.

(-)

Den eyed the prisoner as she was thrown into her cell and left for the day to heal up. She needed it for what was to come.

Zentrai motioned him over and ordered him to follow him. There were procedures for this kind of an event. Den once thought it was strange that they had events planned for moments like these. Getting a political leaders' daughter, in this case Azula, was so rare that it never happened. But they had things planned for it and they were to follow them to the letter. Failure to do so would get you thrown in jail or executed. It was a shame that they couldn't do it to her. But she had a set of orders placed around her that protected her from death by them. Anyone else could kill her so long as they weren't from their organization.

The orders around Azula were the key in a lot of things right now. The fact that they couldn't kill her just gave them more operating room to work with. It gave Den more room to work with as well. Den could find a million different ways to work the rules in his favor. He'd use them here as well.

The mute lead him out to the entrance of the hidden village and began starring down at the water. They were behind a waterfall. Not very secure, but it was pretty impressive. They had taken over the village to ensure that the place remained secure. As long as the village was theirs they had no fears of anyone finding the place. And the few the waterfall provided from behind it was very amazing. No one would have ever thought that looking behind a waterfall down into a pound was an amazing thing like this.

"_I want _her _to be brought here to help in torturing Azula." _Den nearly did a double-take. A million thoughts ran through his head and the mute nodded. _"You're right. Bringing her here now would be dangerous. But Azula can't stay here forever. We can keep her secure for only so long. And Calamity never took into account that the General he's after doesn't care about anyone or anything. Let alone his wife. He'll sacrifice her just to get a chance to kill us."_

"He did plan for it. He even told me. That's why he's sending an advanced unit out to the rendezvous place to set up an ambush. He wants you to lead it, though."

"_I know. But I don't have time. I'm only going to be here for a few days and I'm not spending it doing his stuff. I have more important things to deal with. And yes, I got the message that I've been put in charge of the Avatar's safety. I can't believe how long that took to go through."_

"In Rehka's defense, she wasn't expecting the outcome of the battle to be so disastrous. But then again, the Avatar and his team haven't had a real command structure. They've gotten by on their own without one, but because the invasion fell through, which we figured it would, they can't take any more chances. They would have been safer to have not had it and kept the Avatar from being discovered. But that's not what's important to me now. You really want us to bring **her **here? Are you insane? If she's found out by anyone they'll bring hell down on us?"

"_I don't really care. I already sent a letter to Rehka requesting it. It is part of the guidelines we have to follow anyone. Break Azula by any means necessary and then send her back after getting what we want from her. If Iroh's plans falls apart then we have a backup plan in motion. She'll tear the Fire Nation apart from within and all we have to do is sit back and watch and then go capture her. That will leave them without a leader and we go in and finish them off. Simple."_

"Things are never that simple, Zentrai. But I'm not going to argue over what has the better outcome. Genocide isn't something I like to think about."

The mute nodded and began speaking again when he sensed another set of thoughts in the area. Normally he wouldn't have bothered but the thoughts were strange. He had felt them before. And they were confused. He latched onto them and gave Den a smile that was his clue to start looking at the mute continued to pretend to talk to him in his normal fashion. Zentrai did often times speak while moving his hands around. It made you understand that he was the one speaking and not someone else.

"_Got him," _Den said through the mental link. Zentrai nodded as he continued to talk in his own way. He wasn't really even talking. They were both looking for the person. _"He's in the rocks next to the trees." _

Zentrai looked in the direction without truly looking. He could see him right there. He was pretty well blended in with the rocks. His outfit matched them perfectly almost.

The mute ran a hand through his hair. The thoughts of the person remained transfixed on him. He didn't think twice. He threw a dozen knives at the person. The thoughts of the person turned strange and he didn't bother with them. He raced down with Den and got over the person. He had managed to pin him to the ground with ease. Only one knife had entered the body and that had been at the foot. He wrestled the person to their feet and began binding them when the thoughts of the person went strange. He had never seen the white man before but the thoughts were very familiar to him.

"How much of that did you hear?" Den asked slowly.

Thoughts formed and Zentrai paused. Before the person could reply he yanked him around and tore his shirt and robes off. He was actually a she and she was a very familiar woman now. Without her hair covering up one of her eyes and the mask away from her face, along with her chest revealed, there was no mistaking who it was.

"_Ty Lee_."

A/N

We are not Azula bashing so you all know. The method that was used here was actually used in Feudal times of Japan and China when dealing with captive soldiers. If a captive woman was still alive that was a strong warrior or a political assist, they were often nursed back to health and used a breeding stock under the idea of strong warrior gives birth to strong warriors. And if they were political assists, they were brainwashed and used as puppets.

If you don't like this, I'm sorry, but this is how things were done in the past and if you don't like it, sorry.

Now, I must say that I am amazed that no one figured out that the white haired man was actually Ty Lee. His very first appearance was his ultimately give away. We had it set just so you could figure it out and yet no one figured it out. Then again, we did have her not speak and her death did seem pretty realistic, so no hard feelings. Though I am a bit amazed at the fact that someone you hated on me for "killing" her when the pairing is Naruto X Ty Lee. I don't do someone loving someone else that just died and never moving on.


	26. Chapter 26

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 26

Zentrai, Den and Calamity stared through the window at Ty Lee. Stripped of her clothing and strapped to the chair she was in by chains, there was no mistaking that it was Ty Lee. But the fact that she was here was strange to him. He couldn't fathom why she was even here outside of her desire to see Naruto. That didn't make much sense to him. Why was she even here outside of that reason?

"We checked with our sources," Den whispered to him. "Ty Lee did in fact die a few weeks ago. She had a funeral and everything. The only thing missing was her body. Reports backup her claims to what she did. She was dragged off by underground lizards and her body was never recovered. She faked her death rather well. Almost as good as the way we hid Lyra. No one suspects that she's actually alive. She's not even known to be alive by the Fire Lord it would seem. Even Azula doesn't know she's alive."

Zentrai placed his hand over his mouth. He was nervous because of this. Ty Lee faking her death. Her sudden appearance here. And then there was the book. She had Naruto's book and had brought it with her. Devotion was one word that came to mind. She was madly in love with him and was going to great lengths to prove it. Her thoughts were placed only on him and not her wellbeing.

The mute gave the two with him a glance before looking back at her. He wanted to go speak with her, but he didn't know where to begin. He envisioned her struggling and doing her best to beat the ever loving shit out of him for doing what he'd done so far to her. It wasn't like he enjoyed watching or being a part of it, but a big security risk was now in effect. Ty Lee overheard part of their conversation concerning a major secret with the Assassins and Azula. They had to deal with her and Zentrai felt that it should be him to do it. He just didn't know where to begin.

Calamity removed his mask. "I'll go speak with her. I'm sure I can get something else out of her that you weren't able to, Den. After all, you're having trouble with Azula."

Den bristled at that but left it for the time.

"_No. I'll go speak with her." _The mute turned to the door and entered. Calamity had a snickering comment go through his mind that had the mute growling. _I have no intentions of fucking this girl. At least not until Naruto gets with her. _He thought.

Ty Lee greeted him with a smile. No matter what he or the others seemed to do to her, she smiled. It was as if she were planning something. But in her mind when Zentrai connected with it, her thoughts were only about reaching Naruto and seeing him again.

"What do you want to know now?"

The mute paused and cringed mentally. He wouldn't show it, but what they had done to her was a bit cruel. They needed to know if the place was compromised. They tortured her for information. She was very forthcoming, but they wanted to make sure she was telling the truth. Even with Zentrai reading her mind as she told them, Den found it hard to believe that she was actually being honest with them.

So they tortured her. They burned parts of her skin. They made her drink various liquors and dunked her in cold water to increase the chances of frostbite. Nothing too serious had been done to her as of yet. The worst that they had done was burning her skin. Den had wanted to have her raped for a few hours and broken so he could question her. Zentrai forbid on the grounds that she was telling the truth and that they could somewhat trust her to not screw them over.

The mute decided that it was best to come out now. He might as well stop trying to figure out what she knew and why she was here. It was time to learn her motives and what she really wanted to do in her true heart.

He tossed Naruto's book onto the table. Her eyes were instantly glued to it.

"_I'd ask why you have the book, but we both know why you have it. So I'll skip that and get to the real question at hand. Do you love Naruto, even though you know nothing about him? You don't even know if that's his real name."_

"Does a name really matter?"

The mute smiled. _"No. No it most certainly doesn't." _The two shared a moment of silence before Zentrai decided to speak again. _"What is it that you want from us? I mean, what is your real reason for coming here outside of meeting with us? I know it can't be just because you want to see and return this book to Naruto. If that were the case, you wouldn't be having such thoughts about…" _He paused and blinked repeatedly. Ty Lee suddenly blushed. _"You had a dream that you had sex with Naruto? And you can't figure out why?"_

"Leave me alone. Don't bring up that subject around me." The acrobat turned away from him as best she could and tried to look at the walls that were away from the mute.

The mute growled at her. _"You're not helping me anymore, Ty Lee. I can't help you if you don't let me. I know that you care for him, but that isn't enough right now. You did something horrible. I know you weren't the one who arranged the capture of Rehka and her girls, but you were part of it. I know you couldn't stop Azula, but an effort on your end to stop it would have made it easier for you right now. And if that wasn't bad enough, you also have the shame of helping Azula in bringing down Ba Sing Se. You're very presence at the city is why."_

"Does it really matter in the end? You're going to kill me in the end."

The mute sighed and rose. _"I haven't decided as of yet." _He lied and walked out. Den and Calamity were offering odd glances in his direction. _"She loves Naruto."_

"I could have told you that."

"Calamity, you're the man that had five girls pronounce their love for you to your face and you still didn't get it. So don't start talking about it like you know what's going on."

"For your information, those people were good friends of mine on their deathbeds. And besides, I knew they loved me but I could never return it. I don't want to risk loving someone that would impair my judgment should they get captured. It wouldn't be worth the risk."

"_She's been honest with us so far. I see no reason not to trust her. But she does love him and she's already had a dream about having sex with him." _The mute rubbed his chin. He hadn't shaved since he'd gotten here and things were still looking as though he'd be here for a few more days. _"I need to go clean up. It'll clear my mind." _He departed and sighed. He could go visit the brothel here. That would clear his mind a great deal.

(-)

"Well… so much for the "Leave one of them alive" option." Naruto cleaned his hand off on the body of a fallen soldier and flexed it a moment later. He turned and faced the others as they finished checking over their gear and to make sure they were all okay. "You guys all okay?"

"Yeah… We're fine." Aang stared down at one of the bodies. It was already being munched on by Rai and looked half eaten.

Naruto hissed and faced the large beast. "Knock it off, Rai. We have to check over the bodies before you can eat them. What if they had some poison in there? You'd be screwed. Or close to it anyways." He spat the body out and began licking his lips. "Spit it out!"

Rai growled once and then spat some gold coins out. Naruto sighed and began the annoying task of going through the dead.

Sokka joined him and moved fast to keep his limbs before Rai could eat them. The others kept their distance as Naruto and Sokka pulled gold, silver, and weapons from the bodies. Once the bodies were stripped, Rai had his feast. With the bodies stacked in one area it was easier for him to eat and it gave the others a chance to rest and devise a plan of action for later use.

"Does he really eat everything?" Toph asked.

Naruto nodded mutely before turning his gaze to the Avatar. "We need to come up with a plan of action. We can't head for our secret base so we need a new place to go. Heading for a spot no one would think to look might be rather hard now. And I'm open for suggestions."

Aang decided to lie on the ground. It was his only way of avoiding Rai as he feasted on the dead. "We could go to the Western Air Temple. No one would think to look for us there. That's the only place I can think of."

"We could go back into hiding in the Earth Kingdom." Sokka offered.

"How about we go back to the Northern Water Tribe? We could hide there and finish training Aang in Waterbending and probably Earthbending if we're lucky." Katara suggested.

The two Assassins sighed. They others had a great set of ideas but they had no real backing. The Fire Nation knew that the Avatar was alive. That hindered them greatly as well. Their best kept secret wasn't a secret anymore.

"We can't go to the Earth Kingdom. It's been taken over by the Fire Nation. I'm one for hiding in plain sight, but that would be suicide right now given how many troops might be over there right now. And there's no way I'm taking you to our village. That would be stupid because we'd have to kill the rest of you or swear you into the Assassins. And heading for the Northern Water Tribe isn't that smart of an idea either. They knew you were there once and might just head there now. So the Western Air Temple it is."

Naruto groaned. Lyra had a point. The only option was the Western Air Temple. As much as Naruto hated to admit it, she was right about them being taken to the Assassin Village. Anyone who laid eyes on it became prisoners for life, had to live there for the rest of the life, worked for them, or killed.

"Very well. Lead the way, Aang. I've never been to the Western Air Temple, so I don't know where it is."

The Air Nomad smiled. He was going to get to go home in a sense.

"Follow me."

The blond wondered if this was a bad idea but then stepped on those thoughts. It was better than roasting in the desert.

(-)

"Where are the Airship bases located?"

Den stabbed a hot poker into Azula's foot. She screamed and he waited for her to quiet down before asking her again.

This had been the case for the last two days. They tortured her for hours on end until she was near death. It was at this point that she was left alone and given a chance to heal. Normally he wouldn't have done this but he had no other choices. The orders surrounding her protected her from continuing until she was broken to the point she was near dead. They also had to tread carefully as well since they were also trying to impregnate her for her Blue Flame. They had no idea if the gene would carry. But they did know that if she was impregnated, the chances would be higher since she was a female. They did know that if she got pregnant and then was pushed too far, she might miscarry and that would be bad for them. Months would go to waste.

Azula finally stopped screaming and offered an answer to his question. "Go fuck yourself!" She spat blood at him. Her pride alone kept her from killing herself. She wouldn't do it out of pride. How shameful.

Den looked down at the poker with a curious glance. He had done everything the way he normally did it, yet she remained stubborn. Normally he wouldn't question it. But Azula was different. She was starting to act up at random times. She remained strong willed and continued to hold on. She was determined to believe that her father would come rescue her or something along those lines. Zentrai even announced that she had envisions a massive army like no other marching into her cell and whisking her away. Laughable as it was, Zentrai wondered if it was possible they had been found out.

After a moment of looking down at the poker, he stabbed it into her left breast. Her skin was burned just above the nipple. The smoke curled upwards and Azula screamed louder than before. He kept it in place longer than before and waited until she ran out of air to scream with. When he pulled it out, he was annoyed by the fact that she smiled at him.

"That doesn't hurt at all." Her voice was horsed.

Den offered her a blank glance before jabbing a new hot poker into the back of her knee joint. She screamed just as loud as last time but it lasted longer than the previous times. He waited patiently before pulling it out and sticking it back into the hot coals. He grabbed another one and slammed it into her armpit. She screamed again but smiled at him.

The youth closed his eyes and turned away from her. He needed to rethink his strategy when dealing with her. She was harder to break than what he'd like at the moment.

He walked out the door and slammed it shut. Calamity was waiting for him by the doorway. His arms were crossed as he stepped forward to walk with the man. They walked together for a moment in silence before the masked man decided to speak.

"You're doing it wrong."

Den stopped. He gave the masked man a quick glance before looking in the direction of the cell where Azula was kept. "I'm not sure on what I'm doing wrong. I've always kept an open mind when dealing with people like her, but she's different. She doesn't respond tattered flesh and your level of mind games. No matter what I try, she doesn't break like a normal person would have by now. I mean, yes, it would take time, but it's not showing. No signs of what I'm doing to her are working. I'm at a loss right now and need to think this one through for a day."

Calamity sighed as he began to fiddle with the rim of his mask. "Broken bones and ripped flesh can do a lot of things, but breaking her isn't one of them. It is part of the grand way to break her, but to do so; you must break more than just her body. You need to break her pride."

Den gave the masked man a sharp glance. That made sense to him but he didn't like the idea of it.

"Rest for the time being. I'll get you what you need to break her. In the meantime, I'm going to have a little chat with Ty Lee. I'm curious as to how she made herself vanish as effectively as she did."

Den cringed as he walked off. He could only think of the horrors that would ensue once he was ready again. Calamity was a terrifying man at times. This would clearly be one of those times.

The masked man watched the interrogator leave before turning down the hallway and walking at a leisurely pace towards Ty Lee's cell. He was very curious on how she did her disappearing act. Very few people could get away with such a thing and not all of them were Assassins. If Ty Lee had accomplished it, that was saying something. Her background and from what Zentrai confirmed about her went against what she pulled off. She was an airhead plain and simple. And yet she vanished right under the nose of not one close friend, but the keen eye of the Fire Nation princess, Azula. That shouldn't have been possible. Not for the Ty Lee that Zentrai told them about. Something was horribly off.

The masked teen wondered if he should remove his mask. No one could look him in the eye when he had it off. It was a strange thing, his eyes. They were perfectly normal. Yet no one could look him in the eye. One person had for a moment and claimed he saw something horribly locked behind them. Like he was some sort of monster trapped in mortal flesh that begged for release but denied any who would give it. As strange as those words were, he admitted to feeling something at times. Like some sort of a locked up piece of himself that burned for freedom, yet was unable to spread its wings and take flight.

Ty Lee's cell was guarded by five men. They weren't big and bulky like most guards. They were small, nimble, and agile. They were the fastest men on the base when Naruto or Blink weren't on it. And they could hold their own on any field of combat.

The leader gave him a look before nodding. He pushed opened the cell door and allowed him entrance.

Ty Lee gave Calamity a strange glance as he entered. His hand went to his mask. She looked away as a result. He paused and decided to keep it on. Better to make eye contact for him so he knew when she was lying and when she wasn't. Humans were stupid. When they lied they looked at the ground. When they were confused or trying to remember something, they looked up. And when they were telling the truth they looked straight at them or around them.

"Are you here to question me or kill me?"

"Question you."

"Can I ask a question first?"

"Do I have to answer?"

She blinked and shrugged. "Why did you kill those people on the ship? And why did you blow up the other ships as well?"

Calamity leaned back in the chair and laced his fingers together. He was one for the theatrical and he often times spoke with odd hand gestures. It relaxed him.

"I would normally tell someone that I did it because we're at war, but that's not the case. I did it because people will believe in someone if they can make the impossible happen." Ty Lee blinked. She didn't understand him at all. Calamity smiled behind his mask and with one hand raised as if to demand something, he spoke. "Think of the world as a giant sandbox. Now picture three people inside the sandbox with a stick. And finally, add a dozen people watching those three people fight with their sticks. Are you with me so far?"

Ty Lee nodded slowly.

"Good. Now I have a question for you. If each person has a different length to their stick, who do you think the people will follow?"

"The person with the biggest stick."

"Correct. But, who's to say the person with the biggest stick knows how to use it? If you add in that factor, your answer is off. Just because you have the biggest stick in the sandbox doesn't give you much of an advantage if you don't know how to use it. Now imagine one of those three people with a small stick. I'm one of those people. The difference in size is speed and striking force. So if I can take down the person with the biggest stick; who will the people follow?"

"You. But what does this have to do with you killing those people?"

"People who see the outcome as a bleak and suicidal thing often are amazed by those who can produce a victory from nothing. I produced a victory from nothing. Though no one saw it coming, I am willing to admit that what I desired was more than a captive audience, but rather, a political tool. People are toys to me. I will use them as I see fit and throw them away when I no more use for them. That is how I play the game. I will produce a miracle with what I have and once I have produced the miracle and made my name known, I caste my hands clean of the tools I used and get new ones so that my enemy has no idea on what my strengths are."

Ty Lee smiled. "Why are you telling me this? Why would you tell your secrets to someone like me, who could still be an enemy?"

"A very good question to ask. So I will ask you one. How do you know I'm telling you the truth? Have you ever seen me in combat? Have you ever seen me or my men fight in the last few months? No you haven't. I have a very good memory and take in all factors before leaving or entering battlefield. I dare say that not even Azula could match me in battle wits." He laced his fingers together and smiled behind the mask. "But I will answer one question of yours in full detail if you answer one of mine in full detail."

She noted that he didn't ask a question at the end.

"Sure. It's not like I have anything left to lose."

"You may very well be wrong there. I aim to keep that which interests me greatly." He reached for the edge of his mask and slowly pulled it away. "How did you make yourself vanish right under the Fire Nation's nose and from Azula and Mai?" He stopped short of pulling his mask down when he noticed that she was looking away again.

"I faked my death by using lizards that live underground," she began only to pause when Calamity tilted his head to one side. "I made up my mind a week before staging my death. I wanted them to believe that I was really dead. In order to do so, I had to find a place outside of the Palace City where it would be believable. I chose that village because it was already having some problems. I just didn't know how bad it was for them until I got there. I had the lizards hand chosen because I'm good with animals and when I was able to get them to do what I wanted. They actually live on the island so it was believable as well."

She paused and eyed him. His aura was neutral. That was strange to her.

"When we got to the village I was able to put some special food on me that they liked. All it would take was a small bite and they'd be mine for a while. They love free food and they love it when it's fresh. I put some of it in my pockets and let them find me. When the one came and got me, it grabbed me to get to the food. They don't like live flesh, they're scavengers by nature, so it was easy for me to make sure I wasn't about to get eaten. After Mai saw it with me in its mouth, it ran off down the tunnel until I was able to get out and start tearing my clothes to make it seem like it had eaten me. After that, I just went and stole some new clothes and went into hiding. I only returned to the Palace City to see if they had believed it or not. As a result, they did."

"How did you get your hair color changed, your weapons, and a ride onto the boat I was on?"

"That's two questions now."

"It's part of the same question."

She sighed. "My hair color was changed by a special chemical the Fire Nation was working on in order to get closer to enemy commanders on the field in the Water Tribe. The stuff is permanent I think. Can't really remember if it is or isn't. As for my weapons, I got them from the same guy who I got the clothes from. They were all in the same area at a spot where soldiers hang out. I got them there. I do fell sort of bad for the guy I stole them from."

"A walk of shame never hurt anyone." Calamity leaned back. There were a lot of gaps in her story, but she never looked away. She hadn't lied to him as best he could tell. "And you're sure no one knows you're alive?"

"I don't see how anyone could know I'm alive. My body was never found. My torn up clothes and some blood was found. But I think that no one could have figured it out. I did leave most of my clothes there to begin with after I made the switch into the other clothes, which, by the way, were very comfortable until Zentrai destroyed them." She fidgeted. He was looking at her now and it was finally dawning on her that she was naked. "Time to answer my question now…" She stared at his aura for a moment. "Why did you join the Assassins?"

He chuckled.

"I suppose you want my life story?" She shook her head and he smiled. "Plain and simple I see. Not a bad idea. I like it. After all, my life story is rather common. The reason I joined is because I want to watch the world burn around me for no other reason than just to watch it burn. My whole life is to using people for my own ends. I will use even my very life to accomplish what is necessary if it means burning the world to make a new one. I want to destroy the war that we're fighting, not just for me and the future generations to come, but because I want my miracles to shine brightly in the history books. I want the world to know that Calamity produced miracles that no one else could create. And as the world reads about my heroic deeds, I want them to believe that they could do them as well."

"You basically joined the Assassins to use them and be written down in history as a miracle maker?" He nodded. "You're lying. I can read auras and yours is showing me that you're lying. So why did you really join the Assassins?"

Calamity sat up straight. "I was a normal child. I had two siblings, a mother and a father. I had a dog. I grew up in the city. I loved my family. I loved my friends. And I loved living. The Fire Nation took that away when they stormed my home. I didn't want revenge for my agony or the death of my entire family. Why target one Nation that is doing what they feel is right when I can target the one person who is responsible?"

"The Avatar?"

"No. My target is the world." Ty Lee's mouth hung open. He was telling the truth. "Before I answer your question entirely, I wish to know one last thing. If being powerless is wrong, then does having power make people right? Is vengeance wrong? Is friendship right?"

The young acrobat stared at him with sad eyes. He was a cruel man who saw more than what anyone could ever understand. A pain so deep ran in him that no one would ever understand. And yet, he chose to look past it. He used his pain and defeat to grant himself more power. What did that say about him though?

"No. Vengeance is right under the right circumstances. Friendship…"

Calamity smiled and stood up. She had no answer for his last question. "Ever since the day my family died, my heart just couldn't accept it. I created a fake persona to move myself along in the flow of time like one of the herd. All the time that was lost with my new life. And yet, my pain guided me here for the goal of destroying this world!"

"So you don't blame the Avatar for their deaths? You don't blame the Fire Nation?"

"Why should I? He was a child that didn't understand what was going on or want it. How can I blame him when he didn't even want this life? Sounds rather stupid to blame someone for something that they didn't want. But, I did join the Assassins, not because they captured me and gave me a choice, but because I saw something in them that I could use. We're all using each other. The only way to win the game of life is by using others to better yourself. Don't you agree, Ty Lee?"

"No. I hate that idea. You remind me of Azula now."

Her face twisted into an expression of anger. He smiled behind the mask once more as he turned to leave. "Ty Lee, if you are truly dead to the Fire Nation, you have cleared your way to becoming something great. You can be an outcome that no one can predict. You can make the choices no one else can make now. You've gained your freedom. Now spread your wings and fly wherever you wish."

He walked out the door. The head guard shut the door and watched him leave.

_To vanish the way she did wasn't a coincidence with their mission. Something, maybe a higher power than the Spirits, was leading her. I rarely believe in the idea of Destiny and Fate, but such words might be better used for her right now. Fate guided her here. Fate stayed my hands at the boat for even reasons I can't understand. Someone is pulling a string on all of us without us being aware of it. Now a new game is about to begin. All I need to do is learn the rules and I can win. _

He walked down the hallway and stopped at the door where Azula was. She was already screaming again.

_Farewell, Princess Azula. Say goodbye to your sanity and let go of your mind. You belong to us now. And I will use you up and throw you away like the trash that you are. _

Calamity turned and walked into his office. He had more important things to deal with now.

(-)

Zentrai waited at the rendezvous point with narrowed eyes. This had to be the stupidest thing he had ever wanted done in his life. He knew it wasn't, but it was pretty close considering the security risk that could or would be involved later on if Den and Calamity didn't do it right. He wondered just why he even wanted it done in the first place. The orders that had prevented them from killing her had come from Rehka on the battlefield, but they were never solidified until after they got back to the base and selected Rehka as their new leader. And even then, the orders were a special request from this person.

He looked up at the sun and thought about the direct that they'd come by. Obviously they'd come by sea. But the island that he was on was connected by a long bridge to the island that their base was on. So once the package got here; it would be easy traveling to the place and they could get to work as fast as they needed to. He wasn't looking forward to it or the conversation, but he was prepared nonetheless. After all, it was Gen Fu who had originally found and secured the package and gave it a home and a place to be safe from the war.

Zentrai nestled back into the shade of the trees and watched the road. The rendezvous point wasn't his choice. It was the package's choice. They wanted to meet here in this very location. Under normal circumstance he would have argued the point. But he couldn't do that right now. It would ruin his image as a man who understood honor and the idea of a promise.

He paused in mid thought as he felt minds get closer to him. He scanned them. He blinked. The package was here and being escorted by a caravan of Assassins. Topaz was leading them with her team following in the wagon behind hers. It gave them the illusion that they were just travelers.

The head wagon stopped and a flash of light caught him. He stood and entered without a word or thought spoken. Once the wagon was back on the move he gave the package a glance. It was rather small considering how old it was. It was human and it was hunched over. Covered in a cloak, no part of its skin was visible. That was a good thing. He was taking a hell of a crazy risk right now. Better to play it completely safe at the moment and not say what was going on.

The figure looked up just enough to make small eye contact. He glanced away and the figure lowered its head.

"Lord Zentrai, it's been too long."

He cringed mentally and the figure leaned back just enough to be comfortable. Removing the hood was out of the question.

"_Yes it has, Milady."_ The figure cringed and glanced away. He looked back at her and then sat deeper into the chair. It was very comfortable. _"I'm surprised you considered the option I gave you. I didn't think you'd come. Then again, you have a good reason to come, now don't you?"_

"I have no other reason to come other than because you ordered me to appear."

The mute was quiet for a long time before deciding it was best to keep quiet. He could watch the world go by from the memories of Topaz. He watched through her eyes as the world passed them by without concern for what was going on. It would only be a matter of minutes before they were back at the base.

The wagon came to a stop and guards opened the door to greet them.

Zentrai exited first and searched the place out for a moment before allowing her to exit the wagon. Once she was out the wagons parted. They would return to where they came from and then the Assassins that accompanied them would return to the Nameless Village.

The mute lead their package through the base until they reached a secure room where Calamity had prepared for her. Her stuff was already there and waiting for her.

She stared at the bed for a moment before sitting on it. Things were about to get a little hectic for her and she knew it.

Calamity walked in and gave the two a quick glance before speaking. "Ahh… you made it in one piece. That's good. Now we can begin our full breakdown of our captured prisoner."

"_We're going to give her time to rest before beginning. And you will give her rest when she needs it. For the time being you can start with trying to impregnate Azula. I'm sure she hasn't had any in a few hours. In order to increase our chances of getting a child with the Blue Flame, we should probably have her have sex with lots of people that are Firebenders. Now, give her a chance to rest. And I'll go speak with the Far Seer about whatever it is that he wants." _

Calamity gave a nod and left. He had to go speak with Ty Lee anyway.

The mute gave the man one last look before turning back to the package. _"Rest for the rest of the day and then follow Calamity's orders to the letter. But remember, you can always stop to take a break when you need to. But we have to get this done, no matter what. This is our backup plan in case Iroh's vision is for not." _

The figure nodded quietly and then began to get ready for the torture session that was coming.

(-)

"I want to make you a deal."

Ty Lee stared warily at Den as he stared at her. The look on his face wasn't one that was very calming for her. She found it very scary given how he was looking at her. She could read his aura but it made very little sense to her. It was blank. She hadn't been trained to read someone whose aura was blank. That scared her just a bit.

Den slid a small cup with a muddy brown liquid inside. "Before I explain this stuff to you, I'm going to give you two options. The first option is to drink this, becoming our personal tool for our use. You will be kept under close watch until we deem you trustworthy. The other option is to just die." He withdrew a knife and gently set it in front of her. "I will release you and give you the option on your own. You can either use the knife to kill yourself, which I will watch, or drink the liquid to show your devotion to us."

"What's in the liquid?"

"A poison."

"Why would I drink the poison? That will obviously kill me as well."

"This is true." The Interrogator withdrew a small container with a stopper in the top of it. "This liquid here is an antidote, but only a temporary one."

"How can I trust you?"

"How can I trust you not to stab us in the back? Only a select few of us know how to make this and only one person alone knows how to make the real antidote. This stuff here will only last for a day before a new one must be given to you. And if you fail to take it, the poison in your system will kill you in a single day. Now chose. I have no patience for idle chit-chat or dilly dallying."

Ty Lee gave him a curious glance and then looked to the knife. He was less than pleased if his aura meant anything. She didn't understand the sudden change but when she looked back at the cup his aura spiked in anger. She was really confused.

Her hand reached out nearly on its own and gripped the knife. His aura changed back to being a blank state. She let go the knife and grabbed the cup. She pulled it close to her lips and saw something in his aura change. It wasn't anger.

She drank the poison. The first thing she noticed was that it was devoid of taste. It had no flavor, though that in itself was a flavor. It was very hard to go down as well which was strange considering it was near water-like. The first thing she felt was intense pain course through her entire body. It was so strong that she felt as if death had just touched her and was tugging at her soul.

"Does it hurt?"

"That's a stupid question!" She screamed. That was unlike her. She screamed at someone other than Azula.

Den stood up and moved to her side. "Will you follow all our orders?" She looked at him funny as he removed the other shackles. She dropped to the ground and nearly banged her head off the rock floors. "Will you obey us? If you agree, I will make the pain go away."

"I'll do anything! Just make it stop!"

He undid the cork and gave it to her. She drank it hungrily and when she was finished, tossed the thing to the side before collapsing to the ground. She wasn't dead. But she would hurt for a long time before the drugs did their thing and made her better for a short while.

The Interrogator gave her a quick check before grabbing the weapon and leaving. "When she awakens, alert me and take her something to eat and drink. Give her what she requests. But first thing is to alert me." He said to the guards before leaving.

(-)

There was one last thing to do before leaving and Zentrai wasn't looking forward to it. There were a lot of people in the Assassins that were powerful. There were some that were smart beyond their years. They had healers, teachers, and tacticians. But then they had Farseer's, people with power so far beyond some that they were seen as people who were beyond the realm of Spirits if you were enlightened enough to understand what they did. And of all of them to ever summon him, only one would ever do so.

He pushed through the cloth that made up the door and stepped inside. He didn't have to see him to know he was here. Just like how the Farseer didn't need to see him to know he was here. They were always keen on showing off for the little ones or scaring them half to death. Either way, this one scared him silly sometimes with the things he ranted on about.

"I'm blind, Zentrai. Did you know that?" The mute stepped into the darkness and sat down. He couldn't see the Farseer even if he wanted too. "But you already knew that, didn't you? I'm weak. I'm old. I'm tired. I'm nearing the end. Things keep coming to me. I see them. They make little sense sometimes. Death clings to us all and around those closes to us all. Destiny is a corrupted thing. So evil and full of greed… It's sickening to me. That smell. I'm afraid of it."

"_You're rambling," _he warned.

This one he hated because he was, by all accounts, insane. He had to be. He would sit and talk to himself. There could be no one in the room and he would talk to someone as if his words would bring someone. He was insane, not crazy. He was real and what he saw was very real. Some had even gone so far as to say he was a deranged Spirit that had come to the Mortal Plain and got trapped. Zentrai didn't believe that. This guy wasn't like that. He was loony at times, but he knew when to be serious. It was just that he ranted and rambled on about nothing.

"I am." He considered that and then chuckled.

"_Why did you summon me?" _

"Things are out there that have been put in motion. So strange. I don't know why Zuko has to be with him on it. Why ask me?"

The mute considered leaving. Something was off with the man. That was for sure. But why would he mention Zuko now of all times.

"You never made any sense to begin with. Why do you ask question you know nothing about? I know you're thinking about them. Don't try to fool me, boy!" There was a hiss and then a pop. "That hurts. My back is old! Don't think otherwise. I'm old, damn it."

The mute sighed. He didn't know what to make of the man.

"_What are you talking about? Make sense! I command you to make sense!"_

"Laughable. Stupid. Idiotic. That's what that word means. Destiny is so strange. Zuko going to the Sun Warriors Temple to relearn how to Firebend. That's obvious. He lost it. Now he has to get it back. A trip to that place will install the will to Firebend and he is the only one to teach it to the Avatar. They have to go alone. That's obvious!"

"_Make sense, damn it! I order it!"_

"Wait! Why is everyone talking to me and not to each other?"

Zentrai lost it. The man was officially insane. There was no one else in the room that he couldn't sense. And the man wasn't talking to anyone else or thinking about anyone talking to himself. Something was horribly wrong with the old man. Clearly he was on the verge of dying or finally being consumed by his own powers.

He walked out growling and feeling very irritable at the moment. And when he was in range of the lounge where everyone usually rested that worked here, his blood ran cold. He kicked in the door, a dozen knives floating in the air and ready to be thrown.

Ty Lee's head snapped up from her meal while Calamity looked over from his spot behind her. He wasn't armed, but he was smiling behind that mask. He was always smiling it seemed.

"_You're up too fast for someone that just took that poison, Ty Lee!" _

She had a mouthful of lettuce and had trouble getting it down. When she got it down and punched her chest, she explained. "I'm in a lot of pain right now but my hunger is putting that down, Lord Zentrai."

"_Don't call me that. Call my Zentrai. I order you to call me that." _She nodded and resumed eating without permission. Zentrai sat down in front of her. _"I'm fixing to head out to the others and begin helping them. You're coming with me. Making any strange moves towards the Avatar and I'll kill you. Make any funny moves that I don't like, I'll kill you. If you think anything I don't like…"_

"And you'll kill me. I think I see a pattern here."

"_Talk back to me again, and I'll kill you." _

Ty Lee nodded slowly and then continued eating. The mute sighed and began thinking about messed up his life was about to get.

(-)

After a few days of rest on Ty Lee's part, the two finally headed out to meet up with Naruto and the Avatar. Ty Lee was quiet the entire way unless Zentrai asked her a question. His questions usually pertained to something stupid like what her view on life was or why she was so determined to give Naruto his book. She even took it back from him on the grounds that since she had found it she should give it back to him. He accepted that, but ultimately still wished to be seen as a hero and give it to him.

They walked for miles as they followed Shibaru. Her nose was on the ground and then off it as she scented out her mate and her friends. Of course it was easy since they still had some of Appa's old fur. So tracking them down wasn't the hard part. The hard part was trying to make sense of what was going on when they arrived.

Two things happened that he wasn't expected. As soon as he was within range of a familiar thought pattern, it was killed off long before he could make anything of it. And the last thing was an explosion. Clearly something was going on that shouldn't and that irked him greatly.

Other thought patterns appeared and he growled as he went through each of them. Zuko was down at the temple and was currently trying to make amends for something he did. Toph was injured as best he could tell from what her thoughts told him, and Aang was just confused.

Twenty minutes later he and Ty Lee were within the temple. Ty Lee was amazed by the sheer size of it and how it was built. She said something about wanting to do a circus act here one day. He laughed at the very idea of that. Though the idea itself was rather interesting to think about.

"_What the hell are you doing here?" _

Zuko turned around and was decked in the face before he could reply. Zentrai read his mind before doing so, and even knowing that Zuko came alone and meant no harm, he was able to track them down and that meant others might be able to as well. He wasn't about to take chances and listening to Zuko explain himself was not something he wanted to deal with. Besides, this place wouldn't do as a hiding spot. They needed to be somewhere else where Zentrai had the advantage.

"What the hell was that for?" Sokka screamed. "He saved us! We should be thanking him. Not beating him up!"

"_We're leaving. And we're taking him with us." _The mute turned and glared at Naruto. _"And what the fuck were you thinking? You saw him and never dealt with him? What's wrong with you? You should have killed him and started checking the area for more reinforcements!"_

Naruto shrugged. "To be honest, I'm just a clone. The real me is off checking for that very thing. He left me here in case they were attacked. Then I would have killed him. But Zuko was only trying to do his part. Even if I don't believe in destiny, I still believe people might have them. And Zuko might have found him one. Speaking of finding someone; why did your bring… whoever that is with you?"

Naruto gave Ty Lee a funny glance before folding his arms. Zentrai blinked and then sighed. He had forgotten that he ordered Ty Lee back into her clothes again and made her look just like how she had when she had been captured. They just didn't give her back her weapons. Those they were going to hold onto until she was trustworthy to use them. That didn't mean she wouldn't be able to find some on the battlefield though.

"_It's Ty Lee. She came all this way just to fuck you."_

"I did not!"

"_And suck your dick!"_

"No! I came back to…"

"_Introduce him to anal sex."_

Ty Lee stopped and glared at him. "I came all this way to give you your book back. See?" She tossed the book to the blond. The clone read a few pages before confirming that it was his old book. That made him happy. He had his book back. He tossed it back with a smile though. "Don't you want it?"

"I'm just a clone. You can give it to the real me when he arrives." The clone exploded into a cloud of smoke.

"_I should have told him that I'm angry with him." _Zentrai mused. _"Get your things packed up. We're leaving. I'm in charge now. Don't follow my orders, I'll kill you. Now let's get moving. We got a lot of ground to cover before nightfall and I'm not looking forward to the coming nights. And no… I won't explain why Ty Lee is now traveling with us. To be honest, I'm not sure myself." _

The mute moved off with his prisoner and started to bind him for travel. The others stood around for a moment realizing that he was serious.

(-)

"Well… so much leaving one of them alive." Naruto mumbled. "Lyra, are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Naruto sighed and looked around. He counted the dead that now lay on the ground. Two dozen men and women lay at his feet. They were an scouting party that had been tailing Zuko. Zuko didn't know about them as they were ordered to find and eliminate him. That meant that Zuko had come not only of his own free will, but he had also clearly abandoned his people. But even with all that, they weren't going to trust him.

"I killed one more than you did, Lyra." The female sighed. "Come on. We need to get back to the others. Zentrai got back. Looks like Ty Lee pulled a fast one on everyone. She was alive. And she's with him. She brought my book back."

"You seem happy."

"I get my book back. So I have a reason to be happy."

"No other reason?"

Naruto sighed. "I don't get paid enough to put up with you and Zentrai about my love life." She snickered as they began their trip back to the others. It was going to be a long day.

(-)

The package entered the room that Azula was in. Den watched her go in and was forced to wait outside. She said it would only be in there for a few minutes. No more. He agreed but only because after she was done with her, they could go back to raping her. He always preferred that method when dealing with stressful female prisoners. It made things much easier for him.

He waited for the door to close before trying to listen in. Humans were stupid. When approaching in a situation like this they sometimes spouted out things that were a great weakness to them. They very seldom could use this tactic as it was very rare to get someone like this. The person wasn't special in any way other than who she was. That was the only reason she was a special. Anyone else and this wouldn't work. It would be impossible and he knew that they'd be months behind in order to get her to what they needed. If you wanted to break people, you had to follow a certain set of rules. This just happened to be one of them. Follow the deadline.

"Why aren't you dead?!"

Den smiled and listened in. He didn't know who she really was, but he had a few ideas. He considered on looking in on it, but reconsidered on the grounds that that was treason.

Through two feet of solid earth and a single steel door with no openings to watch things, he could barely hear anything unless someone shouted or was very close to the door. But he knew that voice belonged to Azula. She was doing her job very well if she was already getting a rise out of the stubborn princess. He just wished he could hear what the package was saying. It made things sweeter for him because he could use it on Azula later on during his sessions.

Thanks to Calamity, he had a set plan for how to break Azula. This part was something that they had to use. They had a deadline to follow and using her was the only option. But Calamity had given him everything he needed for what he had to do. He gave him men that were well built, strong, handsome, charming, and could give you a smile that could do no wrong. Each of them was a Firebender to increase the chances of a Blue Flame user. They would do it without question and with total glee. They would make sure they were unarmed and watch them closely to ensure that they didn't try to kill her. That was the biggest concern he had out of this.

What if she broke her a bit too much? That was possible. Breaking someone to the point that they couldn't actually do anything was possible. It was the worst kind of way to break someone. If that happened, they were lost. She would never be able to think for herself without being told. Even following orders would be next to impossible for her. If that happened, she would better off dead. Not even a sex slave would be worthy to that kind of life. They did need her to have a child to bear a child that had the Blue Flame, even if that took years just so that they could produce one, so she was the exception to the rule. When they got one from her that was a confirmed user of the Blue Flame, they would be done with her and kill her off.

"…followed your hatred instead of following the path of love and kindness…"

"Shut up! You're not real!"

The Interrogator smiled. She was starting to lose it now. That meant that she was almost ready to finish up.

After a few more minutes of intense screaming, it was over. The female walked out with her hood up and her head clearly down by the way she presented herself. She stopped halfway into her next step and glanced in his direction.

"I trust you weren't listening in?"

"I tried." He looked back into the chamber as a guard began to shut it. Azula was furious. "Keep that expression, Princess Azula. The men I have waiting to meet you will enjoy it while it lasts. Don't lose that fire you have right now. It'll make my job a whole lot more fun." He laughed as the guard shut the door.

"You're not real! You're not real! You're not real! You're just an illusion!"

The door shut and the figure cringed as Azula screamed at her. For her, things were only just starting. For Azula, they were long finished.


	27. Chapter 27

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 27

"Can't sleep?"

Zuko rolled over lazily and tried to position himself so that he could look at Lyra. He failed and crashed back onto his bed.

After being brutally tortured by his idea of it, they had finally deemed him innocent on and the right path to restoring his Nation. That still didn't mean that they trusted him completely. A history of chasing the Avatar, helping bring down the walls of Ba Sing Se, and personal betrayal on more than one account, they weren't too fond of letting him roam around unsupervised for the time being.

"I figured I shouldn't sleep around you guys," he retorted. Lyra chuckled. "I can understand why you'd see me as a threat. After all the things I've done, I kind of deserve it. So I don't blame you for taking all the precautions you can around me. But still," he shifted awkwardly and the rustle of the chains sounded as if to speak what he didn't want to say around her.

"I'm actually here to take those off of you." He rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm not out to get you. And don't think we're doing all this because we don't like you. In fact, I rather like you. You want to change the world. End all of the fighting. I like that idea, but you're ideas on how to do it seem to be rather stupid. Depending on the Avatar to take out your father… what a joke. You should have just done it then and there. Save us some trouble. But instead, you let him live."

"I did it because I thought it was right. I want this war to end the right way."

"There is no right way to end a war, Zuko. If there was a way, there would be no wars. There would only be diplomacy and idle threats. But that isn't the way things are done. You and I both know that." She produced a key and took off his restraints. "I'm not a bad person, I just do bad things. Killing people is something we all have to do from time to time. Killing is the only thing people seem to understand how to do. We're all animals after all."

"That's what that girl said to me while she was interrogating me." He rubbed his arm.

Lyra nodded and sat down on the ground in front of him. "You've lost your Firebending, correct?"

"No. I haven't lost it. It's just… weaker for some reason. I don't know why?"

"Perhaps it has something to do with your choices now? Did you think of that?"

"Yeah… but that girl didn't think that could be the cause." Zuko leaned against the wall and began thinking of an answer for what was going on. Nothing made sense to him anymore. Not even the reappearance of Ty Lee.

(-)

"What are you thinking about?"

Ty Lee looked over at the former Jinchuuriki with a smile. Naruto looked away as a result and stuck his nose back into his book. Even after everything Ty Lee had done and even after giving him back his book, he wondered if he should make the first move or not. There was no question that she had read the book. But how much of it had she read? How much of it did she understand? And then the real question: Did she understand what he was?

"Nothing…"

"You sure about that? I can tell that you're lying." She sighed and he raised the book. "I'm not stupid. I know you read this. So that means you really must have some questions for me." He snapped it shut. "What confused you the most about the book? I know there has to be…"

"You're not form here. That much I get from the book." She pointed at it before continuing. "Radios… Cameras… Tapes… what are those things. We don't have them. And I've never heard about them being in development. And then there was the power thing you all had. Power lines I believe they were called. We don't have those and that book described them. So that again begs the ultimate question: What are you?"

Naruto laughed and sat the book down. "I'm human, just like you. But can you believe everything you read in a book? Where's your proof?"

"The date."

Naruto blinked and then growled. "Fuck." He ran a hand through his hair before speaking. "Okay… so clearly not only did you read the book, but you also understood everything about it and the author. So that again makes me wonder why you came to bring this to me at all."

"I want answers for what I read in that book."

"Well… you're not getting any. Sorry."

"And that in itself is an answer. Just saying that means I'm right about you. You're not from here. I don't know where you came from, what you're background story is, but I know that you're based off that book. That's why you read it. Because you want to remember who you were or maybe what you once were. I don't know."

"Ty Lee, the person in this book is based off of the author. Yeah, I'm just like him in a sense. I'm strong willed. I never give up. I fight to my last breath. That's who this person is and that's how I've been my whole life. We're all like that. We never give up until we get what we want. But if you read the book more clearly, you'd understand that every time he came close to his goal, it got yanked away and hung just out of reach. The author wasn't a great person in the beginning. He was like me… a loser with no real talent. Even his sensei saw that he was a loser, but he tried over and over again to make things better for him."

"You're not a loser."

He raised a hand to silence her. "Ty Lee, I'm not who you think I am. I'm not some hero that comes out of nowhere to save the day. I'm not someone that pulls miracles out of nowhere to win. That was never who I was. I was never the person in this book, just like the author. He tried to bring people together through this book. It was his life he wanted everyone to read about and hope to see the error of their ways. But do you know what happened to him in the end? He was killed by a former student."

"Was it you?"

"No. I would never have tried to kill him. He was the closes thing to a grandfather I think I ever could have had." The blond paused before adding: "He was the only one that really trained me on how to survive against my enemies. So to that end, I would never have tried to bring harm to him. He was too kind to me not to."

"So who killed him?"

"A man named Pein."

"Sounds like a retarded name."

"It was."

"So what about the other things that were mentioned in the book?"

"Stop searching for answers, Ty Lee. It won't end well. Trust me." She gave him a look of defiance before noticing the vile in his hand. It was the same one she was going to have to take in a few hours for the poison in her system. "You know you can survive for a few days without the antidote, right?" She nodded slowly. "You also know that it doesn't take that long to make this stuff, right?" She nodded again. He threw it against the wall and walked out. "Don't go searching for answers you don't need to know anything about. Next time I won't just break the vile, I'll ensure that you suffer for a day."

He stepped out of the room and slammed the door shut. He knew he shouldn't have done that, but Ty Lee was barking up a tree too high to understand at the moment. How could he explain where he came from to her? And why would she even want to know more about it, let alone offer up some stupid answer for him after reading the book?

(-)

Rai and Shibaru licked their lips in anticipation for a meal. They were hungry. They were always hungry. And more times than not they were out hunting for their food. But there were those few times that the food was brought to them. Even if one of them didn't like it, they still ate what they were given. It was better to never turn down food in their mind. Food was food. Even if it just happen to be wearing a suit of armor with little to no flesh or blood left on the inside.

When the smell of their food began to get in range they lowered themselves down and got ready to pounce it. The grass rustled and they moved forward with amazing speed. They darted into the bush and began to snarl as the grass exploded into a fury of movements. A darting blur of red rocketed out of the tall grass and began heading into the home where the others were currently staying. Rai and Shibaru gave pursuit, snapping and howling at it to try and make it stop.

The red blur circled the house, nearly colliding with Sokka as he walked out with Katara and Naruto. Smoke exited out of the home and Naruto was forced up onto the roof, but not before hearing the howls of Rai as he tried to chase down the red blur. Naruto reached out and grabbed the red blur with an angry hiss before walking into the house with the others following curiously. Rai took a snap at the thing in his hands and was left whining as it kicked him in the eye. Naruto growled and swung the red creature around by the scruff of his neck as he entered the room where Ty Lee and Lyra were.

"Where's Zentrai?"

Lyra turned to snap at him but her eyes locked with the little thing in Naruto's arms. It was a Fire Ferret, something that was native to the Fire Nation. They were evil little creatures to the two Assassins, say for Zentrai of course. It was a mischievous little guy ironically named Double F because of what type of Ferret it was.

"I thought I locked that little bastard up." Lyra snatched it from Naruto's hands and tossed it at Rai. The little creature flipped in the air and landed on Rai's muzzle rather than in his mouth. The two started fighting. A moment later the fight was over and Double F sat triumphantly on top of Rai with a big grin. "I hate that thing."

"Why didn't you just kill it and save us some problems in the long run?"

"Why didn't you just kill it and save us some problems right now?"

Naruto sighed and decided to not answer her question. Just because one evil little creature that they had locked away and tried to kill more times than they could count had arrived didn't mean that they had just been given a bad sign from the Spirits. But the little guy was evil and it was Zentrai's other pet. Naruto had one as well, but it stayed with one of his friends. Lyra didn't have pets.

The two Assassins stared at the little creature for a good long while before noticing that its collar had a note on it. They gave each other a glance before taking the note and reading it. Lyra tore it apart and moved to punt the little guy. It sidestepped her attack and watched her hit the ground with a thud. Lyra screamed and began chasing the thing down murder in her eyes.

Naruto sighed. "Great to have this little bastard back. Just freaking great."

(-)

Mai knew something was up the moment she had been told that Azula was on a long term mission. Azula never did anything alone. And her father wouldn't allow it either. That was the biggest clue to her. What was the Fire Lord thinking? By stating she was on a long term mission by herself he had practically told everyone that knew her that something had happened. But Ozai had no problem stating that Zuko was now a traitor.

_Sure seems like everyone I know is either dying, being captured or becoming a traitor, _Mai thought.

The Brooding Weapon Mistress huffed in annoyance and decided to try and clear her mind as best as she could. It was hard to try and focus on something else for her since her boyfriend had just broken up with her, her best friend had just recently died, and her family was missing after the invasion had passed and communication had been lost with the city of New Ozai. Rumors had spread that Bumi had taken his city back, but no one knew if it was a true or not.

There was a knock at her door and she was forced from her thoughts just long enough to answer the door and find a messenger bearing a note for her. She took it and read it before throwing it away. It was another letter on how Ozai was planning to get her family back for her. She knew he didn't care. He was doing it for his image and nothing more.

She tossed it at the wall, slammed her door, and looked at the image of her and Zuko. It had been finished not too long ago just before the invasion. But now she hated the thing and wanted to destroy it. Sadly, she couldn't. It was all she had of Zuko outside of his letter to her.

The woman hissed and threw her knives at picture. They punctured around the picture but never hit it. They all struck the wall or the lining of the painting.

She broke down and started to cry softly as her world began to crumble around her.

(-)

Naruto stared down at the half-empty glass of Ale before downing it in one gulp. It stung as it went down. It was a stronger kind that what he was used to. It left a strange taste in his mouth as well. He didn't care and poured himself another glass. The second glass didn't taste as funky to him.

He was lost in his thoughts to what had been happening over the years since he had come here. A lot had changed. A lot of friends had been made and lost. Now wasn't the time to focus on them, but he had no real choice in the matter. His heart was always getting in the way. One of his friends once said that a heart was like your conscience: always getting in the way and being the ultimate hindrance. They were just things to overcome to grow stronger and become colder. That's what happens when you lose something that makes up who you are.

He downed his drink and poured himself another glass. He wished they had an ice machine like they did where he came from. Cold drinks always tasted better than warm drinks. They had ways of keeping them cool, but they weren't as effective as a refrigerator or a freezer like what he once had.

There was a knock at the door and he swiveled around to look at the person. Lyra stood in the doorframe with her one arm pushed under her breasts. Naruto nodded and raised his drink. She smiled and joined him. Naruto poured her a glass and then smiled at her.

"Always a pleasure to drink with a woman," he said.

She smiled softly and took a drink of her own. Naruto looked away and stared out the window of the room he was in. The trees swayed in the distance and his eyes glazed over as he remembered his own home for a little bit. Some much time had gone by. Was he a Nuke-Nin now? Had anyone ever tried to come looking for him? What about Tsunade? She had been comatose the last time he saw or even heard about her? Did she survive the fight with Pein? Did Hinata survive her near death experience after she had tried to save his life?

He took another sip of his drink before sighing. All those questions and no answers for them. It was almost pathetic to admit his problems, but most of the questions he had originally started out with concerning his past had been answered. Over time he had slowly begun to remember other things that answered other questions. Hinata had been a mystery girl that confessed her love for him once but now he remembered her. But something remained out of his grasp. He had always wondered what Akatsuki had been planning when they captured all the Bijuu. How would they use them? Revenge and the idea of peace had been their motive, he remembered that much, but where would they go from there?

"Stop thinking about the past," Lyra commanded softly. Naruto looked over at her with a puzzled look before she smiled at him. "When you start thinking about your past you have a sad look in your eyes. Stop worrying about it. You're here. We need you."

"I know." He downed the rest of his drink and then poured himself another glass.

One thing about having the Kyuubi had been that it could heal him from most poisons and keep him virtually healthy. He had never once been sick to the best of his memory. But even after losing the Kyuubi he still had his healing ability which meant he could drink with the best of them and not suffer any side-effects like they could. He could feel it, and it would take a while for it to die out, but the effects only lasted for an hour at most.

"I was just thinking about the future. About my life. I'm starting to think that Zentrai might be right. I do need someone to be with."

"Rehka's girls love you to death, Naruto. Who else could actually be with you that you could bring into the Assassins or know in the Assassins? I mean, I loved you once a long time ago but I've moved on. And even then, the love I think I had for you was a crush and nothing more."

"I know. That's why I never returned it."

"You knew?"

"Zentrai can't keep his thoughts to himself sometimes. I think he did it back then just to mess with me because he knew I was lonely." Lyra snorted and the blond shrugged. "Truth is: he's right. I am lonely. I've always been lonely and I don't think I'll be able to change that. And even if I did find someone to be with, I don't think it would be safe for them, Assassin or no."

"You could always leave them in the village. You have a place there. Why not just let them live in the house we all used to live in there?" Naruto shrugged and she leaned back. "When was the last time we even slept in that house? Was it when you got injured?"

"Probably."

The two were silent for a moment before Lyra finished her glass and told him she had to go check on the Avatar. He was about to leave with Zuko and head to the Sun Warrior's Temple to try and relearn how to Firebend. Naruto nodded his thanks for her company and then returned to his thoughts.

"_What makes you think you know anything about it, anyways?" _Naruto closed his eyes and pictured his last fight with Sasuke. He wasn't proud about how it had turned out. _"You never had a family to being with. You were on your own right from the very beginning! I'm suffering now because I had those ties! How on earth could you possibly understand what it feels like to lose all of that?" _

Naruto leaned back deeper into his chair. _Sasuke, did I save you… or did I end up killing you? _He took another sip of his drink. _No… I don't think I saved you at all. In fact, I'm willing to bet we never saw each other again after our last meeting at Orochimaru's base. _

He poured himself one last glass before growling mentally. _"I'd prefer it if you didn't read my mind all the time, Zentrai." _

"_Sorry, Naruto. But I needed to speak with you. Besides, it's not healthy to focus on the past like that." _The mute moved into the room with his fellow Assassin and then took a seat next to the window. He groaned as he read Ty Lee's mind from where she was located. _"Ty Lee is still thinking about you. It's getting a little strange, but she has the basic grasp of who you are."_

Naruto stared at him for a moment before sighing. "I know. I just don't know how to deal with her right now. If I knew how to deal with her I'd nip this in the bud right now. But we have other matters to worry about. Like what are next move is."

"_It's going to take a long time for Aang to become a master of any degree in Firebending. So we can rule out the idea of him taking out the Fire Lord anytime soon. And time isn't something we have a lot of. In just a few short months the comet will arrive and all hope will be lost unless we can deal with him before he enacts his plan. If we can't stop him there won't be a world to save."_

"You think I don't know that? I'm not a fool. But we have very little options at the moment."

"_We have a few options, but none of them are too great. We can either stay and wait for this to all blow over and pray that the comet is off. Or we go in and do things our way. Either way, we're sort of at a loss."_

The Elite Assassin sighed as he considered those two options. They didn't sound that great. He knew they had other options. Doing things their way could be done in a verity of ways, most of which wouldn't be fun. They had Azula, but that would take a while before she was ready to be sent back out. And even then, the damage would start slowly. It wouldn't a quick and direct hit to them.

They needed time. But time was the one thing they didn't have. They were running out of it and if things didn't get any better soon they'd be completely screwed in the end.

The blond ran a hand through his hair before leaning forward. "We need to come up with some sort of plan of action or things are going to get messy. But right now, I think we just need to focus on a plan of action from our past actions. We've made a lot of bad choices along the way here, but we never really did much to change the world. We've had one chance at taking out the Fire Lord and we blew it because you didn't want to risk it at the time. And now we're stuck here with these kids as a result. We need a solid plan that will actually work or we won't be ready for save the world at all."

The mute was silent for a moment before speaking his thoughts on the matter.

"_I know we've made a lot of idiotic choices, Naruto. And you are right. We do need to come up with a plan from our past actions. But that's easier said than done."_

The blond groaned as he thought about where they were going to go from here. They had very little options to work with and looking back on their pasts it only made Naruto feel a little bad. Like the other Assassins, they had been trained to move and fight until they had no fight left in them. When one of them fell, they never mourned their loss. They simply fought harder for their sake and never looked back. But upon looking back, they realized how much they had lost along the way.

Zentrai chuckled as a single tear ran down the side of his face. _"Vicious would have killed us for looking back on our pasts, but he never stopped living in the past. Poor guy…"_

"Vicious was never sound of mind. He wasn't someone that could move on easily. He chose to live in the past because that was the only thing he knew how to do. At lease Aoi could make him see the future when she was around him. As strange as that was for him to be whipped by a girl, he was probably the only person that could get along with Aoi and make her use her strength to help us."

"_Vicious was never that great at being understood. He focused too heavily on his past and it controlled him. But he was the only one to ever achieve the title Sacred Devil for his fighting prowess. He fought to the bitter end after Aoi died and threw his life away. Even if we did get something out of it as a result, his death was a hard thing for us at the time. I had no idea on what to do without him since he was the only Firebender we had at the time that could easily get into the Fire Nation."_

"I still can't believe that we lost so many of our friends, now that I look back on it." He shook his head and stood up, his drink in hand. He downed it with one gulp and sat it down on the table. "We should gave make sure the others aren't getting into any trouble right now. I know you can read their minds, but I want to speak with them about forming a plan of action. Chances are they won't listen to us without us letting them in on it."

The mute nodded slowly. He didn't want to kill them, but if they didn't listen to his orders he'd have no other choice but to kill them.

(-)

Ozai was at a loss on what to do. When his daughter had been hunting for the Avatar, he didn't worry about her. She knew how to handle herself and could think of a way to solve any problem she came across. So he had never truly worried about her, especially after learning that the Avatar was a mere child. That had pleased him greatly and he never thought twice when he sent his own daughter after him with the company of two Assassins. But things were different now. His daughter was captured and most likely being tortured for something.

He took a calming breath and waited for his Generals to enter the War Room. They were going to have another meeting to change their plans a little. He wanted his daughter found and back so she could run the Nation after he had thrown away his title and became the Phoenix King. He trusted only Azula. She was the only one now that he'd entrust his Nation to. She was the only one strong enough, cold enough, and ruthless enough to lead it. If his plan failed and he somehow died, she would step up to the plate and take down everything and everyone in her path.

"You shouldn't worry so much about your daughter."

Ozai glanced over his shoulder. The shadow had red eyes. He turned away with disgust radiating in his eyes.

"You're worried about her. That's a given. But we will find her. Make no mistake about that."

"Why should I trust you when your entire team failed to predict the Assassins? And even when they began their attacks, you did nothing to them. You merely sat back and watched as they tore apart my forces."

"You're forces?" Ozai turned around fully. The red eyed man glared at him. "Never forget that they aren't _your _forces, Ozai. They are this _Nation's _forces. Many have died because of what you say. I'd hate to kill you right now since you are of great value to us. And after everything we did for you to gain your power. Don't ever forget the debt you owe us." Ozai let go of his anger and turned back to the entrance for the Generals. "We'll be in touch."

Ozai balled his fists up. He hated how these guys got around. They were here one minute and gone the next. But it wasn't that that made him mad. It was that every time he did something they didn't like, they threw the fact that they had helped him get this power. Where he stood now was only thanks to them and his former wife. Without their help, he might not have ascended to the throne. His brother, Iroh, the soft heart, would have gotten the throne and possibly ended the war years ago. That was not what these people wanted, just as he didn't.

Ozai wanted the world. They wanted something else. He didn't know what. But it seemed to him that their leader wanted his spot on the throne. And if he didn't want it, he wanted something else. Possibly something else that not even Ozai could grasp. But the problem was that he had no idea on what they were after. They were so secretive. Even the newest members that joined their ranks were total strangers to him. They never took orders from him. They took orders from their leader. It irked him greatly to know that a second military power was being grown in his own Nation and that he couldn't control it. More than once had he thought about disassembling them and letting them rot for disobeying a direct order from their leader.

Ozai had more things to worry about at the moment. New Ozai had been lost and a squad of his own troops had been lost as well when they were sent in to check it out. Reports did come in stating that Bumi had taken back his city during the eclipse. Somehow he wasn't surprised by the loss. King Bumi was a strange one. He had a tactical advantage at the time that he could have easily taken hold of. Instead, he surrendered. Not it made sense as to why he did such a thing. He simply knew about the eclipse somehow and wanted them to feel secure with him detained. He should have killed him when he had the chance.

The last of the Generals entered and he gave them his usual greeting. He didn't want them knowing that his own daughter had been captured. He had an image to uphold. If he failed to uphold, all of his dreams and his ambitions would go down in one night.

(-)

"I hate shopping," Lyra snapped.

Naruto paid her no mind while Zentrai read Naruto's dirty book. Naruto didn't care that Zentrai was reading them in public, but he did wish he could contain his giggles. It reminded him too much of his former sensei, Hatake Kakashi. And while he was certain that his bad habits would eventually come full circle to him, he could always postpone it by giving the books to Zentrai, who, of course, put them to good use. Naruto, like Katara, just wished he wouldn't read them in public as they traveled through the market of a town in their Fire Nation clothes for supplies.

"Could you please put that away," Naruto whispered. The mute shook his head. "I know people can't read my writing about as well as you and White-Out can, but for the sake of its safety, put the book away."

The mute decided to not go on a rant about Naruto's ideal cover name for Ty Lee since it was the first step towards getting them together. He really wanted him to get in her pants. And he was willing to allow names like that to go out since it seemed to be as close to a pet name as Naruto would go for at the moment.

"Must you read that in public? I feel dirty just by standing near you and know what that is." Katara hissed.

The mute gave her a curious glance before sticking his nose back in the book. Katara huffed while Sokka shook his head. At least Toph didn't care about it. She even admitted to wanting to read it just once to know what it was completely about. Just saying it was about sex was one thing when it wasn't just about sex. There was a story to it. It was just a small simple one that told nothing other than a girl or guy that was dispirit for sex and went to any ends to get it. She wanted to read it for that part.

"Just leave it alone, Katara. It's not worth the trouble to make him try and stop unless you wanna put out for him," Lyra advised. Katara snapped shut at that and turned away with disgust. "But she is right. You should put it away."

"_Does it really matter what I do anymore? You guys don't listen to me unless I have to get physical with you. So why should I listen to you if you won't listen to me?" _Katara thought about that for a moment before Waterbending at him. The mute pretended to trip and lose his grip on the book. _"No! The porn!" _The mute moved with lightning speed and avoided her water whip while saving the book but taking a gash across the back. He hit the ground, rolled, got to his feet, and smiled at her. _"The porn is safe. I can die in peace knowing I protected it. For I am its savior. And thus, I am the savior of the world! Because porn will save the world!"_

Naruto sighed and continued on his way with Toph trailing behind him. He didn't have the patience to deal with them at the moment. He was more wrapped up in the future plans they needed to make rather than what Zentrai was doing or not doing. At least Toph was good company when she wanted to be and she didn't much care for Zentrai's antics. She followed his orders when they didn't involve something strange like helping hunt for food or washing clothes.

The two continued onwards without pausing as things began to get out of hand. By the time things settled down the two were already far away from the others and getting the rest of the supplies that they needed. When they finished getting what they wanted they waited for the others to show up. Naruto wasn't surprised to see that Katara was still raving at the mute.

_This is getting old, _Naruto thought as he led Toph away from the others. He had no intentions of remaining behind to listen to their petty argument about what was good in public and what wasn't. Zentrai was only doing it for fun. Naruto knew that as did Lyra. But it was grating.

"You don't like it when Zentrai does this, do you?"

Naruto glanced down at the Earthbender and shrugged. "It is grating. I'll give you that much. But we've all got bad habits. So I'm not going to complain about the things he does. I'd be a hypocrite if I did."

"Why? What do you do that would make you a hypocrite?"

Naruto chuckled. "I drink for one thing. I'm not very good at dealing with political things. And I did read that stuff for a long time. I'm not very proud about that."

Toph shrugged. She didn't care what Naruto did and didn't do.

The two got back to their hideout first and had to wait only an hour before the others showed up. As soon as they got their stuff put away Katara was thrown outside the building and the mute walked outside to deal with her. Lyra started getting stuff together for dinner while Naruto walked outside with Zentrai. Sokka and Toph remained indoors for this little moment.

"Katara," Sokka began. "What were you thinking back there? We're in a Fire Nation town. And you're a Waterbender. You can't do that!"

"So? Zentrai doesn't have to be an idiot in the middle of town like that! That's just too extreme and it's wrong." She folded her arms over her chest. "And I'm not backing down about this either. What you guys are doing is far from human. First you let an entire town get burned to the grounds for something they didn't even do. And then you personally wipe out a town on your own and let the reason the town was suffer escape. What's wrong with me? What's wrong with them? They're nothing but…"

Naruto turned away and Katara felt pain course through her body. Zentrai punched her twice in the stomach forcing her to double over. He grabbed her throat before she could fall and shoved her into the ground. She gasped for air and clawed at his arm. Her hands came back cut up and bleeding.

"_Katara, I'm not taking shit from you. I told you and the others when I got back that I was taking over since you have no command structure. You don't even have a leader. You just do things. That's all you do. You just _do _them. You think I'm a monster? You think I seriously don't know that?" _

He picked her up and threw her at the house they were staying in. She collided with the wall and hit the ground coughing. The mute snorted as he watched her rise to defend herself.

"_Katara, I've broken enemy lines stronger than you could imagine. What hope do you have of beating someone like me? I'm a former Rank One Assassin that was known for his fighting prowess, tactical mindset, and my ability to kill people so fast that they never knew they had died. So what hope do you, a single Waterbender that can't fight a true battle in a time of war, have against me?"_

Sokka stepped forward. "Katara, everything we've done is to end the war. I know I would have caved in back there at the first town that we had to let fall if it had just been us. Even now I wish I hadn't listened to them and sided with you. But this goes beyond just war. This is about survival of the fittest. We're enemies in enemy territory and you wanted to show off what we were. That was too dangerous."

"I feel bad about leaving those places too, Katara." Toph cut in. "But if it caused us our cover, I wouldn't have helped you. No matter how much you could have paid me."

Naruto reached over and started petting Rai. The large beast gave him a sad glance and the teen leaned against the tree that rested in the front yard. "We're not monsters by choice, Katara. If you want my honest opinion on such a matter: I believe that everyone is a monster. We all keep things caged inside us that hide who we really are. There isn't a true saint out there. Everyone is guilty of a crime. So don't call us a monster when you're one too."

"I'm not a monster. I've never done anything as horrible as you guys."

"I'm guessing you forgot about the time you stole from the pirates?" Katara's blood ran cold for a moment before she turned her glare towards her brother. "Katara, we're not saints. And I know this is a time of war, but we've put our cover in jeopardy too many times and gained nothing a few times. Do you really think that it's safe for us to always play the hero when we're in enemy territory?"

"I don't care about that! I will never turn my back on people that need me. That's not who I am."

"I can understand that and relate to it, Katara." The Waterbender gave a sharp glare towards the blond Assassin. "I'm not someone that can turn my back on others as easily as I make it seem, but we're at war and we're trying to end it. Making friends and hoping that they'll turn against the most powerful Nation right now isn't enough. You need more than just friends to beat a Nation. You need skill. You need information. And you need to know when to lay your chips and when to pull them back."

"_Stop trying to reason with her, Naruto." _The mute produced a knife and stalked towards her. _"Sometimes the only way to get through to someone like this is to put them in a situation where they understand their place. I'd rather not do this, Katara. I'd rather not be seen as someone who hates you simply because of your heart. But you're not giving me any choice now." _

Katara summoned her water to defend herself. The mute moved with liquid grace, avoiding her attack and getting in close. With one hand he pinned her arms above her head. With the other he put the knife to her throat and began to slide it across slowly. Blood trickled down and her eyes widened as she felt her skin slice apart.

The mute removed his weapon and let her go. Her hands came to her throat to heal the wound and hold it.

"_If you heal that, I'll kill you for real, Katara. Don't worry, a few days in the sun after it heals on its own and no one will know it was ever there. Don't ever question me again and don't ever do something I don't tell you to do while I'm in command." _

He walked off with Shibaru trailed after him. Naruto, Sokka, Toph, and Rai remained behind to watch Katara as she tried not to heal the wound. It was a hard thing for her to adjust to but she did it. She didn't heal the wound.

(-)

Calamity tossed the new report on the desk. Things were coming to close. The Assassins had already started moving with the Order of the White Lotus. That was a good thing. That meant that the end of the war was close at hand. But he was worried about what was going on at the moment considering that with everyone moving out of the Fire Nation, or rather the entire world, might learn the location of their village.

The masked teen gave a willing sigh of frustration while thinking on that matter. The Assassins were a secretive select group of warriors that tried their hardest to never be with the outside world when possible. They wanted to remain hidden from the world. But this was a stupid thing in his mind. They would be at the ultimate risk to them and their secrecy. If he had things his way, he would have never have given such an order to anyone of his Assassins to help out the Order of the White Lotus just to take back Ba Sing Se.

Sadly, he wasn't the leader yet. He knew his time would come. But even more so, he knew already who would oppose him and who would support him. And of all the people he knew that would oppose him, no one would oppose him more than Geo.

Geo was a truly gifted person. Someone said that the Spirits had blessed him twice with fighting prowess equal to that of Blindside and a tactical mindset as good as himself and Zentrai. Sadly, the Spirits didn't give him enough time. He was a man that was born with a sickness that came up during times of battle. So long as he didn't fight his life was prolonged, but his sense of duty threw his chances of living much longer away.

And of all the people to support him, Geo's sister, Gail, supported him greatly. And that was a strange thing because Gail was a strange girl. She never chose a side to work with when it came to right and wrong. She was a heavy political person and she had no problems about changing sides at a moment's notice. She would change her side on a daily basis when she didn't see anything in it for her. However, her status as an Assassin was true to the cause. She would always be an Assassin as it was the only life she had truly ever grown up knowing about.

The two were like night and day. Geo was the closes thing to a walking disaster with his large sword and bow skills. His sister was the only person outside of Inferno to carry a shield and wear a suit of armor, but unlike Inferno, her armor didn't cover her entire body in something that could withstand all levels of Firebending. Her shield was her main focus, making her the only thing the Assassins had to the ultimate shield.

There were others he could think of that would side with him, but none were too great in his eyes. They were practical people that didn't understand politics. And those that opposed him would be the same. Only Rehka could truly oppose him as she was the current leader of the Assassins, though she wasn't the official Rank One Assassin for strength. That title was left to Zentrai, though he granted Naruto the title unofficially even if it was only in terms of strength.

The other set of problems were easy things that he could deal with on his own.

Calamity looked up and dawned his mask as the door to his chamber opened. A smile formed on his face as the door was shut by Kar.

"Brother, it's good to know you had to come this way. I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever come and pay me a visit again."

Kar took his mask off and flashed Calamity a smile. "I would normal say I'm not your brother, but after years of going by that, I might as well just accept it, brother." Kar took a seat in front of the desk and laced his fingers together. "I should be grateful they sent me through this area to check up on you before moving out with the others from this location. It's a crying shame that I had to come with Ghost, Suzuki, and El-Tani. At least El-Tani is quiet. Not like Suzuki and Ghost."

Calamity gave him a sharp glance before nodding. He understood that El-Tani was a quiet person and that Suzuki and Ghost were very noisy. But it was more than that. Suzuki was a loud person because of how she had been raised. And Ghost was rather noisy when he was about to go into a dangerous mission. El-Tani was different in the fact that he was rather idealistic and adored the idea of a tomorrow.

He thought about what that meant for a moment before speaking. "You'll be happy to know that Topaz is already stationed here and fixing to leave. She came here for her daily reports that I have to give out. But I must say; she was quite worried about something. She seemed almost distracted. That's unusual for her, isn't it?"

"Topaz was always different from all of us. That's probably the one thing you'll hear about us all the time. All the Assassins are different. But then again, everyone is different. When you think about it, we are all different and yet similar at the same time. You and I, like the rest of the world, seek the future. Those that fight the Fire Nations seek a tomorrow."

"That is what everyone wants. But that begs the ultimate question: what does the Fire Nation want?"

Calamity rose from his chair and moved around the desk. Kar followed him out the door, his mask in hand. The two walked through the massive layers of chambers and down a dark hallway until reaching the cell where Azula was located. Den stood at the door with one hand handing tapping his chin. He seemed perplexed by something but was able to banish it when they arrived.

"Is Azula about to undergo her time with the men we selected?" Den nodded slowly as the masked man stepped towards the door. "I have a question for Azula. It will only be a minute. Tell the men to be ready though."

Den nodded and stepped aside while the masked teen stepped inside.

Azula was in the worst she could have ever been in. Her entire body was covered with food stains, semen stains, and she smelt of sex, dirt, and sweat. Her hair was ratty and greasy. For their safety her mouth was covered by a metal masked with small slits to let her breath. Her hands were shackled and covered with thick bands of metal so that if she did Firebend she would only burn herself. As pitiful as she looked at the moment, the fire in her eyes showed to hold little life now. She was nearing the end of their reprogramming. A few more weeks and they'd set her free to let her run rampant over her Nation.

The Fire Nation Princess gave him a quick look before trying to surge to her feet. "Who are you?"

Calamity reached up to his mask and began to remove it. His left eye shone brightly and she instinctively looked away. He placed his mask back on while saying, "I have a question for you, Azula. Will you answer it for me?" Her eyes narrowed into slits. He spoke before she could offer an answer. "What is the purpose of the war that the Fire Nation started? Why did they start the war? In order to do anything in this world, people need a motive. You were told that the war was started for the sake of spreading your greatness, but that isn't a good enough reason. War never brings happiness. So what was the real reason?"

Azula looked him dead in the eye. "We wanted to."

"What a bullshit excuse. Let's say that is true. Why would you do it just on a whim? There is no such thing as a whim. There is only action and reaction. In order to do something of this magnitude you need a reason. So what was the real reason beyond taking control of the world?"

Azula was silent. She had no answer for him.

Calamity gave a low whistle. "Your silence is an answer in itself. If you think about it, this war was started a hundred years ago. So the reason could be lost. So if the reason is lost, why did you continue the war? Unless you remember the reason, there is no reason to continue the war. So that means that the reason is still in use. Then again, you are nothing but garbage. Using a pathetic excuse like that is just further proof of that."

Calamity looked back at the door and smiled.

"Here is a bit of food for thought, Azula. If the reason to start the war was truly to spread the Fire Nation's greatness, who first came up with the idea? And why would Fire Lord Sozin, a man once known for his acts of kindness and compassion, suddenly start a war to spread your greatness even after being warned by the Avatar? No one can change like that so drastically. This war, a war that has spanned a hundred years, was planned for ahead of the time it was started. So that means someone else is pulling some strings you can't see. I wonder, Azula, are a puppet or a puppeteer?"

The masked teen turned back to face her and noticed something gained in her eyes. She was confused and already searching for an answer to his question.

Because of her silence, Calamity got his answer to the ultimate question that had plagued him for years. Why start a war for no reason? To spread greatness? That was a lie. He, like the others before him that had been as smart as him, sought the answer to that question. No one had answered it in a way that made sense. More land was a stupid reason. More resources' for their own use was also out the window. So that left only one reason: they wanted something that couldn't be understood by anyone else. But what? If that was the true answer that they wanted something back then, then what was it that they desired so greatly that they would destroy the balance of the world?

"We want the world to bow to our feet and grovel in fear at our awesome power," Azula said simply. He laughed and she snarled. "We, the people of the Fire Nation, are above you. Your only roll in this world is to serve your betters. When I am freed from this prison, your will be the first person to die."

"How very funny of an answer, considering that you only fight battles you can win." Azula gave him a curios look. "You are someone that doesn't have the desire to win. You only fight battles you can win."

"I always win. I've never been defeated."

"Then what would you call all of your confrontations with Naruto? You lost to him."

"A loss can be viewed as a victory if you gain something from it."

"You're superior, Azula. So superior in fact that you can't see what's right in front. The Fire Lord seeks the past. You seek the present. But I seek the future."

"How idiotic of an idea. The only future for the world is to serve the Fire Nation. Your future would be nothing better than your current present if you continue to challenge us."

"No. It will be better than this life. Because, no matter how long it takes, people will continue to seek happiness."

"Even though that will only feed their own greed?" She laughed. "Your foolishness knows no limit. You're too emotional about this. Hope and reams are just names for an aimless fiction."

"That is because you're limited by being part of the symbol… known as a Royal Family which looks down on the world. I have seen it, over and over. The people who struggle against sadness. Those who seek the future. How they all carry on wishing for happiness. It is because of these qualities I truly became an Assassin and to never show my face to the world by wearing this mask." The masked Assassin decided to drop the conversation. He didn't want to deal with her anymore.

The teen turned and walked off. He passed through the crowd of men that stood in line to get what they came for. Azula would be their play thing for a few hours before being released back into the hands of Den as he tortured her for information and broke her mind to his liking. When the men entered and Azula began to scream as the men had their way with her, Den shut the door and followed.

"Has she said anything?"

"No. I doubt she will say anything right now. We need more time with her."

"You're out of time. Next time you begin your time with her, inform me. I wish to break her right now. Kar, with me." Den bowed his head while Kar followed with a weary sigh.

(-)

Naruto glanced up as one of his clones dispersed. Zentrai was already forming a plan after what he learned from Naruto's clone.

Naruto wasn't amazed by his clone's life span or what it had done. It had disguised itself as a guard that worked as a guard for the prisoners. It learned when they were transported Hakoda out and now they knew where he was going. They knew where he had been destined to go from the start, but they wanted to make sure before they acted.

They had come up with hundreds of plans on rescuing people from Boiling Rock, but they had lacked the time and resources to do it. It was impossible because of the ships never stayed around the place for very long. They wanted to make sure that the prisoners never got off the island and one way to ensure that had been to have double guards on standby as the ships were unloaded at a distance by smaller boats to ensure that no one could board the supply ship. When each of the ships returned they were always asked for the code word by the captain himself.

That was all about to change.

"You're insane."

"_Let's go break the bad news to the others."_

The Elite Assassin gave him a sharp glare before complying. It wasn't like he had much of a choice on the matter. He would go regardless to free Suki, his friend.

"You go break the bad news to them. I've got to watch Ty Lee. Have fun. And don't be an idiot." Naruto paused and thought about that. The mute chuckled. "And kill your fucking ferret for me would you?"

The mute gave him an impish grin as he walked off to watch Ty Lee. No doubt this was some sort of ploy to get into her pants. That was what Zentrai thought at least. He had high hopes for them. Namely so he could bend her over backwards one day and stare at the back of her head for a few hours, but that was just what he wanted him to think. Zentrai understood Naruto's pain just a little. He was the only one of his kind right now. And there was someone chasing after him that wanted to be with him, but he wouldn't allow it for reasons he kept to himself. Whatever his reasons were, to Zentrai, it was more than enough of a reason to never pry too far in his mind for.

The Elite Assassin groaned as Zentrai made a few perverted remarks while he departed.

The blond walked through a set of doors before coming to Ty Lee and Lyra. Lyra was in the middle of a story that had Ty Lee staring at her with a look of admiration. Naruto caught a small hint to what she was talking about. It annoyed him to know that she was talking about him without having him there. It was pretty clear that she was trying to get them together.

He stepped in just as Lyra finished. "He also talks in his sleep a lot."

"I resent that." Lyra offered a big grin while Ty Lee looked around in horror. She had the expression of a child that got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "It's my turn to watch Ty Lee. Zentrai is talking with the others about the plan to free Hakoda now that we know where he's located and going."

The one armed bender gave Ty Lee a quick glance. Under normal circumstance they would have even mentioned a plan of any sort in the area of a prisoner. The fact that he said that in front of her meant that he either trusted her enough to not betray them or just wasn't thinking.

"Go to Zentrai. I've got this."

The female Assassin gave him a sharp glare before leaving. When they were finally alone, the blond haired Assassin gave her a hard look.

"I don't know why you're chasing after me, but it's getting rather annoying. But," he paused for a moment, "thank you for doing it. I know your intentions are noble, but understand that I don't like it that much. I'm not trying to say that you're doing something wrong by it, but please don't go and change yourself to my liking. I tried to change myself once for the sake of my friends and for the woman I once loved, but that didn't' work out for me. I become something I wasn't. You won't like it either."

Ty Lee wanted to argue the point that he was wrong about her. But when she thought about it, he was right. She had faked her death to get closer to him. She would have never done that in the past. She had even thought of killing just to prove that she was on their side. But she couldn't do that. Killing wasn't in her nature. She would never kill so long as she could avoid it.

Naruto sat down in the chair next to her and stared at her. "I'm not asking you to change for your benefit so you know. You see, a very long time ago, I was like you. I didn't want to kill people. I didn't want to destroy life because I thought it was wrong. So to that end I tried to change my existence so that I could save lives and my friends by doing whatever it took without killing them. But when I thought about it more and more, I realized that in order to save lives, you sometimes have to take lives. I changed myself because I had no other choice in the matter. I became an Assassin and a killer because I found it to be the only way to save lives. So to that end, please, for my sake, don't change."

The acrobat smiled. "Lyra said something to me about that. She told me that it's wrong to change yourself for the sake of another. I understand that I can't change myself for your sake. But I can always try to be there for you. I love you. And even though you don't reflect my love, I will still be there for you."

Naruto snickered as he stood up. The others were already on their way over.

"Ty Lee, don't change. Please. For my sake. And for your own sake as well."

Zentrai opened the door with a big smile. _"You fuck her yet?"_

"No. Now let's go." He grabbed Ty Lee's arms and forced her to follow him as the others began getting ready for the mission to leave.

(-)

It was time to interrogate Azula.

Calamity wondered how to approach the matter at hand. He wanted to ensure that nothing went wrong when he made this move. It was a move to put people in check and break them instantly. Madness was like gravity. It could go either way. Shove it one way and you would get one thing. Maybe you wouldn't get what you wanted, but he would ensure he got what he wanted.

He pushed open the door to her cell and smiled at her. No precaution was too great when dealing with her. Even during her time with the men she was to be treated with utter precautions. They bound and gagged her, covered her mouth, and chained up her hands. Guards that worked in the room while the men had their way with her moved her when they wanted to have her be in a different position.

Covered in semen, sweat, grime, and left without any energy to fight, this was the moment he had been waiting for. Her mind would finally be broken here and now.

"How are you feeling, Azula?" She managed a weak glare, not out of annoyance for his question, but at his presence. "Azula, I would like to continue our topic from before on the war. Do you have a reason behind the war now? Or do you intend to continue avoiding the subject altogether? If so, that makes you nothing more than a caged monkey that does what he's told without understanding why it can't reach for what it wants."

"I am not a monkey you barbarian."

The masked teen removed his mask. Azula hastily looked away. His eyes made her feel like he was looking into her soul. That freaked her out. Someone that could look into her soul was scary enough.

"Really, now you're moving to insults? How immature of you." The teen gave her a sick grin as he slipped his mask back on. She could finally look at him without the fear of his eyes getting to her. "I suppose if we're throwing around insults, you should know that this war has reached the level of an animal that has no understanding of why it can't reach for what it desires."

"You talk too much."

"Even if you have the strength to speak back to me, do you understand what is happening to you? Do you understand that you will forever be one of my personal tools? I will break you, destroy you, and then recreate you for my personal needs. To that end, I want you to understand that you are mine and no longer belong to yourself or your Nation."

Azula began gasping for air as she fought against her restraints. He smiled as he saw it flash through her eyes. She was losing her mind now. The sheer thought that she was property of him was more than enough to start the process he was aiming for.

"Azula, I told you that you were superior to me. That much is true. You are so superior to me that you can't even see what's in front of you." The masked teen smirked as he sat down within arms-reach of her. She tried to sit up and grab him, but failed. "Try all you want, but the shackles that bind you can't be broken through brute force alone. Not even our strongest Assassin can break those shackles through force alone, say for one of course. So don't waste your strength."

The Fire Nation Princess gave him a sharp glare before feeling her strength leave her again. Something was wrong right now. Her strength was leaving her and she felt like going to sleep.

As Calamity rose to leave, Azula opened her mouth and then shut it when something touched her shoulder. She glanced up to the owner of the arm and turned back to him. "Do you really think I don't know she's gone? Why would you resort to such childish acts? I thought you were a high and mighty Assassin?"

Calamity looked at her funny from behind his mask. He sighed and turned away from here.

"Why would you resort to this? What's in it for you?"

"What are you talking about?" His voice carried a sense of boredom in it.

"I'm talking about this woman!" She pointed straight at her.

Calamity looked around but failed to see anything. Azula could see it though. Standing beside her was a woman in dark robes with black hair and gold eyes. Her smile was something that she would never forget. It was the smile of her mother.

Azula noted that he was looking around. Even with his mask on, she could tell that he was consumed. His aura, if she could have seen it, would have shown it as well.

Calamity gave her one more glance look before turning back to the door. "You're wasting my time now, Azula. The only people in this room are you and I. There is no one else here."

Azula greeted and began screaming at him as he left the cell. Her eyes narrowed in anger as he walked through the door. She turned her gaze back to the woman as she smiled down on her.

"Azula, I love you."

It was her mother. Her mother was the person she was looking at. Her mother was standing beside her, smiling at her just like how she used to when she was a kid still under her care.

Her eyes lost her fire and replaced it with pain and fear. For a split second she thought that Calamity had lied to her, but he had looked around the room and seemed very confused. Even if he was telling the truth, how could they have her mother? There was only one thing to believe in to make sense of all this. She was losing her mind. And if that was happening, what would her father think of her? Would he still allow her to stand by his side?

"Azula, I love you."

Azula screamed.

Calamity had won. She was officially broken of her own will.


	28. Chapter 28

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 28

"_Awesome landing," _Zentrai sent out.

Naruto grimaced at Zentrai's idea of a landing. It was the furthest thing from a landing in his eyes. A landing didn't consist of people flailing about in an attempt to fly. It didn't consist of people screaming in that whisper tone. And it certainly didn't consist of pain so intense that you wanted to die. A landing didn't consist of any of these things. The only thing that could remotely consist of these was a crash. And that was basically what had happened.

The blond sat up, spat out some of the dirt he ate when they hit, and stared up through the steam. He couldn't see that far up. He hated not being able to see.

"What are you doing?"

Naruto was torn from his thoughts and forced back into reality as Sokka kicked the War Balloon into the boiling hot water. It was clear that they had the same ideas on this matter even before the original plan had been set in motion.

Naruto had been afraid of getting off the place. He knew that would be tricky. Their window to get off the island was so small that he was certain the only way to do it was to cause one massive riot so large that no one would see them sneak by. But that was next to impossible as the Warden was a very cruel man. Lockdowns were almost constant and sometimes happening without warning.

Zentrai had been worried about getting on the island. The steam would cover their approach. That much he had expected, but the rest of it was where he worried the most. They wouldn't be able to control the War Balloon. It would have no lift. And that meant that it would fall like a stone. Of course his other concern in getting in was the getting in part itself. Too many guards, not enough blind spots, and too many unknowns. Would they make a lot of noise when coming down? Probably. Would they get spotted? Chances were high. Would they actually be able to get in and find some cover and wait out the arrival of Hakoda? Maybe.

As the War Balloon sank, Naruto became aware of just how committed Sokka was to the cause now. For Sokka this was about regaining his honor. It was his choice to stay behind and fight when things were looking grim. It had been his choice to avoid all the warnings and continue on. It was his burden. But they wouldn't have that. Naruto wouldn't let him shoulder this alone. How could he not? Had he been more forceful, they might have been able to avoid this. They might have had a better place to hide Aang. And they would have had an easier time protecting him.

Ty Lee popped her fingers as the group moved together into a small outcropping of rock. Once they were settled, Zentrai began scanning the area. After a brief moment he gave them all a big smile. _"We got here before they arrived. It'll be a few days before he arrives though," _the mute informed them. _"But we have some small problems. The Warden has this place in a lockdown right now. Someone tried to escape recently. He's planning to lift it in a matter of hours though because the prisoners have been _extra good _for the last couple of days."_

"So what are we going to do until then," Sokka inquired. "We can't stay down here on the beach just waiting for him to show up. We didn't bring any food with us."

"We'll solve that problem." Sokka glanced in the direction of the blond before sighing. "Just stay put for the moment. We'll go sneak in and get you some clothes, and get you inside so that when he arrives we'll all be there. Just wait for my signal."

Sokka rolled his eyes while Ty Lee turned around to face them. "What's the signal going…" She stopped and stared off through the thick blanket of steam. They were gone.

"I it when they do that." Sokka grumbled.

"When they do what?" Zuko asked. He glanced around and gasped. "Hey? Where'd they go?"

Sokka and Ty Lee both sighed. "First time dealing with them, I take it?" The female asked quietly. Zuko growled. "Thought so."

(-)

Naruto and Zentrai both peered over the balcony onto the beach. It was a far jump. And it was an even farther fall in the eyes of the blond. A fall like this would kill him. And that was if he was lucky and hit the ground rather than water. If he had a way of going out, he'd want it to be quick and painless. Not slow, horrible, and degrading as his body was boiled inside out. He did wish that if he did go out that way, he at least exploded fast enough to not feel the pain of being burned alive.

The two moved through the shadows, waited for a pair of guards to move, and then moved into the locker where the clothes were located. A single guard was inside. When he finished getting his clothes he turned into Naruto's hand and was strangled until he died.

Naruto dropped the body and began rummaging through the clothes. Zentrai kept his mind opened as they grabbed two pairs of clothes that they believed would fit Zuko and Sokka. Ty Lee would simply hide with the Assassins while Zuko and Sokka ran around on the ground in plain sight.

Grabbing the clothes and backtracking, they found the beach and the others. Naruto threw the dead body into the boiling water and thought about how lucky he was to not be suffering from the intense heat.

"_We'll take you back the same way we came. Once you guys are inside, continually work as a guard until the plan can be set into motion. Don't bother looking for us. We can find you easily. Ty Lee, stay with Naruto." _

The blond stuffed down his annoyance to the order and moved beside the acrobat. She smiled at him before noticing his hard expression. When the team was ready to move out, Zentrai lead the way and soon dropped the two boys off at the locker so they could change into clothes that fit them better. Before either boy could turn to ask more questions on their task, the two Assassins were gone with Ty Lee in tow.

Realizing that they were on their own, they departed from the locker and began trying to keep out of sight. They failed and were soon pulled down into the field where a fight was in the process of being started. The ring of prisoners was proof to such a thing.

(-)

Naruto grimaced as he watched the fight from afar. It was one-sided and wrong. The man had done nothing wrong and was going to be sentenced to the cooler for a few days because of his attempt at escape. When everyone was broken up and the prisoners returned to their cells, Naruto nudged Ty Lee and motioned for her to follow him.

Ty Lee paused to watch the prisoners for a brief moment before following as ordered. Naruto lead her through various chambers until they reached a large room with a desk.

A clone appeared and exited the room to stand outside. Naruto tore through the desk while Ty Lee stood in front of him with bleak eyes. Something was wrong. She could sense it but didn't know if she should tell him or not. As the blond tore through the desk, the acrobat turned and started looking for the source of her problem that she was sensing. She found nothing.

Naruto stood up after putting things back to the way he found it and moved towards a vent. He popped the cover and motioned for Ty Lee to move into it. Once she was in he followed. Once he was inside and the cover in place, Naruto watched for the person that his clone had spotted and alerted him to. The door opened and an old man entered.

The man sat behind the desk and began looking for something inside the desk. When he finished looking through the paperwork he rose and left. Naruto watched the door shut before turning around staring at Ty Lee. He gave her a nod and made her turn around. She blushed as they began crawling for the next vent that they could escape through.

The blond moved over her when they reached the next one and looked through it before opening it up so they could get through. Ty Lee dropped down in front of him and the blond sat the hatch back in place before moving into the shadows with her. As soon as they were in the shadows the door opened and a guard moved in. Naruto felt Ty Lee's hand grasp his and he gave her one quick glance. She was frightened by something.

The guard turned and looked right in the shadows they were hiding in. Naruto's first instinct was to move out and kill him. He staved off the idea as the guard moved closer to them and then to the shelf next to them. He ran a finger over the rolled up scrolls before moving towards the bookcase. He pulled out one book, sat it back, and turned towards the door as it was opened.

"The Warden want's to have a meeting before the new prisoners get here," the man at the door announced.

"They're here already?"

"No. They won't be here for a few more days. Now hurry up. I don't want to have the Warden on my ass for supposedly slacking."

The man growled as he grabbed one of the books and followed after his comrade. Once the two were gone, Naruto stepped out and looked at the bookcase. Ty Lee was still holding his hand. He wasn't fully aware of it, but she soon took her hand away from his when he reached up and grabbed the book that the man had been aiming for. He skimmed over it and snapped it shut.

"_Zentrai, can you hear me?" _

"_Yeah," _he replied quickly. _"What did you find?"_

"_Nothing. Just wanted to make sure you were in range." _

Zentrai sighed and cut the connection while Naruto motioned for Ty Lee to head up in the vent again. She was half-way up it when he motioned it to her and he sighed in understanding to why Zentrai sent her with him. The mute would have killed her for being this jittery around him. It was nerve wrecking for him to be around her when she was like this, but with the time that he had spent with her, it was clear that she was now seeing another part of him that she hadn't seen before.

He climbed up into the vent and continued on his way after sealing it back up. Ty Lee waited for him and stared intently into his eyes as he motioned for her to move ahead. She nodded and began to crawl while the blind followed slowly. He stared at her as she moved and realized that she was trembling. Something was up and it was starting to get to him.

Naruto shoved it from his mind as best he could as they continued from the vent into the next room. Naruto was certain that whatever was bugging her would soon bug him as well. Until then he had a chance to focus on the other problem at hand he focused on his current problem. He needed to know where everyone was and who was here. Naruto knew he would eventually have a chance to figure things out, but he had to find the people to talk to before he could figure things out completely.

At the start of the war, agents had been sent out to place them in areas just like this. Of course the information was generally kept from most agents inside the Assassins, say for the Rank One Assassin. Naruto was a Rank One Assassin, but not the official one. That title was still in the hands of Zentrai even though Naruto was allowed to carry it around. Still, finding the people to talk to was harder than what he thought it would be. He had no idea on what their names were and he had even less of an idea on what they looked like. The only person who knew what they looked like would be Zentrai.

He sighed and decided to not find the people. It would be too troublesome for him to try and talk with his friend again considering what he just did to him.

(-)

"Shibaru seems depressed," Katara noted.

Lyra nodded slowly. She wasn't listening. She was focusing on her own problems. Yes she cared about Shibaru and Rai, but that only went so far. So long as neither of them were aiming to eat her, she didn't have a problem with them. And as for their mental health, she could care less since as soon as Zentrai came back into the picture she'd bounce around, be happy, and probably make an attempt at using someone, namely Appa, as a chew toy to throw around.

But the sight was rather pitiful. The ferret that Zentrai owned was resting on top of Shibaru as the large beast whined for her master's return. Under normal circumstances, Shibaru would already be trying to kill the little fuzz ball. But since she was depressed, she didn't have the energy to do so.

Lyra tried to figure out just what to do about the other problem she was facing, but soon gave up on it. She was trying to make sure that Aang continued his Firebending training as instructed by Zuko. Aang had already complained about doing it nonstop like they had wanted them too. Lyra couldn't help him with his training, but she could make sure he continued it by constantly threatening to kick his ass.

The female Assassin stared out over the cliff edge and thought she saw her two friends. She knew she couldn't see them, but she believed that she saw them out there.

"You're worried about them, aren't you?" Lyra gave a small sigh of frustration as the blind Earthbender sat down next to her. "I can't see you, you know that right?" Lyra nodded mutely. She was still focused on other things at the moment. "Even though I can't see you, I understand that you miss them. But what I don't understand is how you put up with them? Have you always been there with them or have you always just staid by their side for the sake of the mission?"

Lyra gave a depressing sigh as she finally turned her gaze onto the blind girl. "I stay with them because of the mission. They are my comrades. And above all else; I stay with them because they need parental supervision."

Toph chuckled at the joke. She didn't know how true it was. On more than one occasion she had been forced to get involved in their wild and crazy acts before she had to intervene. It was a strange thing to know that she was basically on the verge of wanting to destroy the two of them and switch teams with someone that could actually deal with them in a more humane way.

"I've been with Zentrai as long as I can remember. For a long time I thought he was my brother, but I know he's not. He has no relation to my grandfather. But the two of them are the closes thing I have to a family now. So I've stayed with them not just because they need parental supervision from time to time, but also because they are all I have left of what had been my old life."

"And what was your old life like?"

"It wasn't any better than this life. The only thing I really remember, or rather, choose to remember, is the time when I first started training to fight. I don't know why I wanted to learn how to fight. But I did. And now, even though I have no idea on why I choose to fight, I still fight. This is the only life I know how to live, but I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if the war wasn't around."

Toph shrugged. "Probably the same as it is now. Well without the war of course."

"I don't believe so. So many people were born and lost through this war alone. Soldiers that rapped innocent women for pleasure and allowed them to birth a Firebender exist now. Think of all the people that wouldn't be here because of that." Lyra got quiet for a moment before adding: "I also wouldn't have to lie to my friends. I've done things… terrible things to my friends in order to keep them fighting. I've wronged Zentrai and I don't' think I'll ever be able to make it up to him."

Toph looked away as if to show she could see before saying, "And what about the people that are dead? They'd still be here. I don't think that the pros outweigh the cons. That's just my personal opinion."

"I will agree with you on that. However, in light of that, I really believe that this war has done more than simply kill people. It had unified people for a common goal. Before the war we were all separated and didn't want to deal with others. The Air Nomads were probably the only ones seeking unification. And now, because of the war, we're all standing united to face a common enemy."

"But the nature of man itself will not allow this to last forever." Toph rose to her feet. "I don't believe Aang can save the world. This world, in my eyes, can't be saved because no matter what, Avatar or no Avatar, wars will continue to exist. The only reason I came along was for the adventure, to escape the clutches of my family, and to train Aang. They said I had to do my part to end the war. But I don't buy that. They could have gone to someone else for training. I think they chose me not just because of some vision he had, but also because they wanted another girl on the team. Katara even said it herself."

Lyra chuckled. "I won't argue that point. However, I do believe that this war will somehow be the last one we have to fight for our generation. Or at least, I hope it is." She stared out at the setting sun and smiled. "Toph, so much of your life has been missed by your blindness. How I wish you could see the setting sun right now. It's almost magical to watch it set right now."

Toph smiled. "Even though I can't see it, I'm sure you could always describe it to me."

"Something's are just beyond description, Toph. This is something you have to see for yourself, unfortunately." Toph accepted her words and sat back down to _watch _the sunset with the only Earthbender that was traveling with them.

(-)

"You are what you dare to be."

Those were the last words that he had heard before coming to this place. Lu De Sun had come here with the intentions of staying out the war. He didn't like fighting. He sucked at it. It was a wonder he even got the position to be a guard. But he didn't care. So long as he, and his friend Dei Twan, weren't on the frontlines fighting and dying, he didn't care.

As the world moved in on him, he checked the candles that lit his room with a lazy eye. He was a lazy man, but a good man nonetheless. And even though he was able to check over the reports in the dim light offered by the candle, he knew something was wrong.

He smiled and began writing. _"I know you're watching me, Lord Zentrai."_

In the back of his mind he felt laughter and frowned. When the laughter died down and Zentrai's voice came in, his frown deepened.

"_Your sensing ability still surprises me, Lu. Did you truly feel my presence before I even started speaking this time around?"_

Lu gave a depressing sigh. Since as long as he could remember, he had always had this strange sensation when someone was watching him, even from afar. It was sickening to know just how right he had always been about this crazy thing. Even now he knew where Zentrai was. As sickening as it was, he had always used it to avoid combat when possible. He was a coward to some. And to others he was the greatest scout that the Assassins had.

"_I've come to ask what you've learned from this place."_

"_Liar," _he snapped hastily. _"I'm not stupid. I know that Hakoda is being brought here. You want him to join the Assassins just like how the previous leader, Lord Gen Fu, wanted him to join us. Sadly, that never got around to happening."_

"_He rejected the offer then. Perhaps now he'll join if we promise to get him out."_

"_Wishful thinking. But still, very stupid." _

He could feel Zentrai's irritation to his words. Something about his words, no matter what, always sparked something in people. He never gave anything he said much thought because he was straight forward person. But this was different. He didn't like Hakoda. Everyone knew that. But he really didn't like him.

"_You might wanna go have a chat with Dei Twan or the other two you stationed out here. I'm sure Ming Dea Fuu would be happy to see you again."_

"_Who's that?" _

Lu sighed inwardly and blew out his candle _"I'm going to bed. Go find your own answers. I have nothing to tell you of any great importance." _He turned and moved into his bed. He felt Zentrai's presence leave him and his eyes avert. That sensation scared him, but he beat his fears down into a dark part of his mind and fell asleep.

(-)

Naruto stared up at the starlit sky with faint smile. The sight, through the haze of the steam, was always breathtaking to him. The night sky, it always reminded him of his time when he still lived in Konoha. The sky was the same as best he could tell, and that just gave him courage to believe the lie that he was just somewhere else in the world where the elements were controlled through fighting styles rather than jutsus. He didn't believe the lie he created, but it gave him the illusion that he wasn't far from home.

Blindside had said it best. "You are home no matter where you lay your head."

Naruto sat back against the hard earth and rolled over onto his side. He knew that Ty Lee was staring at him intently and he had no intention of dealing with her just yet. He wanted to ask about her trembling but knew that would be stupid. He knew why she was trembling, but just chose to ignore it.

He tried to put her fear out of his mind and soon was forced to think only about it. She had a reason to be scared if he wanted to think about it. He had once gone through the same thing too. So he could sort of understand her fear. What she feared wasn't the fighting, but rather, the fear that she might die. That was enough to scare anyone, even a battle hardened veteran like himself.

Gravel shifted beneath feet and Naruto rose up to watch as Zentrai arrived. The mute took one look at the two and sighed as he got to the darkest part of the cave. As he sat down, Ty Lee glanced up and stared at him. "Is it always like this for you guys?"

Naruto sat up with a degrading growl of annoyance. "You can't let it get to you. Right now we have a mission that we have to complete. You can't let things like this get to you. I know that you're afraid right now, but if you continue to let your fears hold you down, then you will end up dead. And while I don't want you fighting, there is a strong chance that you will get stuck fighting. So please, for your sake, don't try to let your thoughts become clouded. I'd hate for you to die."

Zentrai chuckled and capitalized on the moment. _"So you do care for her."_

"Shut up, Zentrai. Go scan the others and make sure they're not doing something stupid."

The mute laughed and left to check on the others. Zuko and Sokka didn't know about their meetings since they were posing as guards to work undercover and get a chance to find an opening for when they could leave with Hakoda.

Naruto groaned as he got up and walked towards the entrance with slow movements. When he reached the exit and stared up at the night sky again, he began to think about what Sokka and Zuko were doing. Of course he knew they were probably being idiots. They weren't that great at sneaking around. But still, they did have some qualities in sneaking around. If Zuko's time as the Blue Spirit was proof to the claim he did have some capabilities in the stealth then neither of the two knew what else could be.

Zentrai walked up beside him and watched a star shoot across the night sky.

"_We have a long night ahead of us. So don't let your thoughts run astray now, Naruto." _The Elite Assassin grumbled a curse and departed with Ty Lee following only a moment later.

(-)

Sokka was amazed by their luck and bad luck. For the first time in a long time he had actually gotten what he considered a break. And today was his lucky day. He had found Suki and made contact with her. She was happy to see him, but she also warned him that it was impossible to get off the island. And while that had been a bit of bad luck for him, the worst part came from when he was in the middle of leaving.

But shortly after getting in contact with Suki they ran into various problems. They were almost caught but avoided it when one of the guards appeared and drew him away. Sokka believed it to be Naruto, but had no real proof. Zuko didn't believe him because he had never seen Naruto's abilities.

The two teens marched through the various hallways in search of their room and found it a moment later. When they reached their rooms and entered them, they were shocked by the presence of a dark skinned male with a scar over his left eye that was closed because of it. His black hair hung just enough to cover his good onyx colored eye.

"It's good to see you, Sokka, Prince Zuko." The man gave them both a sly smile before reaching down towards his sword that was on the small bed.

Zuko jumped before Sokka could react. The man sidestepped Zuko's punch, turned, grabbed his arm, and twisted it behind his back. Zuko was about to scream when the man placed a hand over his mouth, turned, and stepped on Sokka as he charged in.

"Now that was a bit reckless, don't you think?" He released them and stepped back towards the door. When the two boys were on their feet the man laughed. "My name is Dei Twan. I could say I'm surprised that you got along this far without their personal help. But I know I'm just barking right now since I've helped you out twice already. I'm only here right now to tell you that you guys have to keep your heads down until your father gets here."

"And who the hell are you?" Zuko growled.

"Didn't you hear me a moment ago? My name is Dei Twan. I can't talk about who I am or what I'm doing here, but I'm sure you get the message." He flashed the two a smile. "Stay out of sight. Not for your sake. But for mine as well. And tell our favorite metal user that Dei has something to talk about with him." He left with a smile as he put on his helmet and departed.

Zuko messaged his arm and growled in annoyance before saying, "What the hell did he mean by that?"

Sokka closed his eyes with an annoyed sigh. "I think he's an Assassin. But I wouldn't hold my breath on that."

Zuko groaned.

(-)

Naruto was up for checking over the entire prison again. He had no real desire to do any fighting, but with the way things were progressing, he had no idea if they were even waiting for the right moment anymore. Would Hakoda even come around? Or would the forces have executed him while they were flying towards the prison? Or, perhaps they had simply done the impossible and taken over the Air Ship? That did seem highly likely considering his abilities to do the impossible.

The shift of gravel beneath boot got his attention. Ty Lee rose up and moved to the side of Naruto as the blond looked down at the prison. He couldn't believe that the place was back into a lockdown because of what had transpired not a few minutes ago.

After a few hours of watching the guards scurry below him to get things set up for the next time they were allowed out onto the yard so they could relax and stretch their legs. It would be a few days before they were let out onto the field again. And after deciding that nothing was going on that was of great importance, the blond decided to leave and ventured straight for the cave where the others were to meet up.

The two were the first to arrive with Zentrai arriving only a few hours later with blood on his clothes. Naruto dismissed his blood stained clothes and got down to business.

"Another lockdown was brought into effect. It would seem that it was put into effect this time because of another strange attempt by some prisoners to get off the island. They failed, but I have no idea on what caused it or who did it."

"_It was the idiots."_ The mute tossed some bread to the two and continued. _"Zuko was captured a few hours before the incident and staged a way for him and the others to escape. It was their backup plan for us as well, but that sort of fell through. And even though they failed they did do something interesting for us. Because Zuko got captured out of his stupid actions we have another man on the inside. I couldn't find the other guy, but I know Ming is there. That evil bitch is beyond my reach, but Naruto, you might be able to reach her. She won't believe you if you just approach her without conformation that you're one of us, so tell her that I owe her a one-night stand."_

The young Assassin grumbled a curse as he thought about what was going on at the moment. With Sokka getting other people involved in trying to come up with escape plans, it was clear that they had to nip things in the bud right now before it became a real problem.

"I'll go find her. Do you know which cell she's in?"

"_Sorry. I haven't got an idea on where she's located. Good luck."_

Naruto grumbled a curse before leaving. Ty Lee followed not a moment later.

(-)

Ty Lee stared down at the prisoners that scoured about trying to figure out what was going at the moment. When she stared at their auras she was greeted by wavy auras that showed confusion, fear, and hatred. She didn't know a single one of them, but most of the Fire Nation prisoners she knew where innocent just by their auras alone and from what she had seen it.

She had seen it before. Those that had spoken out against the war were seen as evil people and ostracized by the masses as criminals. Speaking out against the war marked you as a traitor. Of course they could also do the obvious thing and make you disappear by killing you and saying that you were simply taking a vacation one some remote island that had just recently come under attack by troops.

She wondered just how many of them were the product of that twisted logic.

The more she thought about it, the more she hated this war. What sort of future was there for those that did all these horrible things? Though their auras showed no sign of sympathy for what they had done, they had to have known that the future they were reaching for was one with bloodstained hands. She wondered if they even carried for the fallen. There was no future for the dead. And what about those who did the killing?

She turned away from the yard and began walking towards the blond. He stared down at a few of the guards with blinking eyes. His aura showed confusion, but Ty Lee couldn't understand why. When it came to the teen, it was pretty clear that she didn't fully understand him.

"We need to get into the prison holds and find MingDea Fuu. She's a friend of ours."

"That's an interesting name."

"And your name isn't interesting?"

Ty Lee laughed stupidly as she took his comment with stride. Her name wasn't strange, it was unique. She just wanted to lighten him up a little. Naruto knew her intentions however and simply smiled.

(-)

Ming Dea Fuu was considered to be the hardest female prisoner there was in the prison on Boiling Rock. It was said that she had committed acts of genocide, failed, and then turned on her own people during war time. She didn't care about which side she was fighting so long as she was killing.

That was a lie though. She had committed crimes, but not that sort. Yes she killed people. She had grown used to doing such a thing. As sick as it was, she too had wanted a way out of it. So she came here. She wasn't selected for this operation. She took it up on her accord. She even requested because she wanted to get away from it all. And when she was told she got the job she was happy for the first time.

In the prison she had quickly gained a reputation as a hardened criminal like no other. Her fighting skills were beyond what normal prisoners could stand against. And even if she took a nonviolent approach to things she always managed to get into trouble. She had lost count on all the times she had gotten in trouble for something she had said or did by accident. It was like she enjoyed fighting, but it was rather annoying that when she got stuck in a situation like that she was the one getting blamed even if she did nothing wrong.

But if there was one thing she prided herself on it was that she had the ability to make anything from even the smallest of things. She had once made a knife from a brick with no tools. No easy feat since she wasn't an Earthbender. And she had been able to pull information from thin air, even going so far as to make near accurate predictions in what might come in the face of a battle. Some even said that since she had the ability that she was either a Farseer or simply had the ability to see the future in the heat of battle. Whether any of that was true or not was left undecided for the time being.

Her sapphire blue eyes danced from her food to the ceiling as her hand moved with magical grace as a brick kunai flew through the air and shattered on impact with the wall. As the debris rained down to the ground, her eyes landed on the blond haired youth.

"You're not a normal guard. So who are you really?" Ming asked.

"Naruto of the Assassins," he announced in a whisper.

"How can I be certain of that?"

"Zentrai owes you a one-night stand." Ming smiled and sat down in the darkness of her chamber. "I came for information."

"You've come to the wrong place. I'm just a prisoner. How would I know anything that goes on outside of this prison? You're asking the wrong person. Sorry."

Naruto smiled. "Zentrai is here, you know? I could talk to him and have it be so that you can spend time with him if you'd like. I can even make it so that you can leave if you don't like it here."

"I'd rather not leave this place. But what do you want to know?"

"This place is getting Hakoda of the Water Tribe. I'm sure you know who that is. So to that end, I'd like to get some help in how to get out of here when he arrives. Surely someone such as you would know how to get out of here."

Ming offered a sickening grin as she turned the other way. "There are numerous spots where you can leave some presents this place. However, they are checked regularly. The wash rooms are also a fun place to hang out if you can get in at the right times. The gondola is the only way off this island, but it can be stopped by some of the stronger men they have stationed here for just an occasion. Archers that are stationed here never miss over a distance of one thousand meters. However, they've never been used to cross the gap between the prison and the rim of the volcano. So don't expect the information to be that accurate concerning that distance. They could have better range given that the steam will increase their range a great deal. But their accuracy may drop, even if only for a moment. They are rather good shots."

Naruto chuckled. Archers were the one thing he hated the most. He could handle himself around them most of the time, but that was only if they weren't the Yu Yun Archers. They were the most skilled archers in all of the Fire Nation and had shot him more than a dozen times over. They were really annoying.

"And don't expect that getting across the water to the rim of the volcano will be easy. It'll be hard. Real hard just so you know. And even if you do, they don't keep a boat or anything over there for you to use to get off this rock. Just a heads up."

"Thanks for the heads up. I'll send Zentrai to you when I can." Naruto waved a hand and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Ming groaned. _Rookie…_

(-)

When Hakoda first arrived on the prison he was quick to make a fool of the Warden. Of course not soon after he was placed into his cell his son arrived. He was amazed to see him. Scared for him actually was more like it.

Now, after two days since his arrival, he was getting pulled into a plan to escape. Of course he had no problems with this. His main concern was his child, Sokka, screwing things up since he was already informed of the failed breakout from a few days ago. He had no problems letting his son leading their forces during the invasion. But this was different. They were in over their heads and behind enemy lines in the biggest way possible. Any further down in the prison and they just might be farther behind enemy lines than what he had ever been in his entire life.

Hakoda ran a hand through his hair as he waited for his food to come to him. He had no idea on what the Assassins were planning to get out of this place, and he had no intentions of just killing everyone here to get away.

Sokka stepped into his cell with a tray of food and grimaced as he watched his father begin to eat the food slowly. Prison food wasn't that good. In fact it actually sucked.

"We're about to start the plan. But we seem to have a problem. Zentrai intends to have us wait a few more days because someone should be on their way if not already here. He wants to make sure that our exit has arrived and wants us to make sure we don't do anything stupid. Whatever that actually means."

Hakoda munched on some of the rice and closed his eyes. "They had a plan set for their escape. My arrival and the Airship they used to bring me here isn't the same ship that they want to escape on. But the question remains on what they're waiting for and who are they waiting for."

Sokka had no answers and merely smiled in the hopes that it would put his fathers' fears to rest.

(-)

Mai stared at the crumpled up letter on the floor of her room in the Airship she was given.

_How could this have happened?_

She wanted to know how this had come around. It was almost too impossible to believe. It was almost like some sort of a fictional story made up and told to children as they slept. It was beyond her understanding and she truly wanted to know how it came around right now as opposed to later.

A knock at the door jarred her from her thoughts. She checked her reflection before opening the door. The captain of the Airship stood in the way and gave a curt nod before speaking.

"We've arrived at Boiling Rock. We understand that you have only a few hours before we are forced to depart with or without you. Please understand. It is out of my hands on this matter."

"It's okay. Just give me a few hours and I'll be back. This won't take long anyways."

The Captain gave a quick nod before leaving. Mai gave a weary sigh as she got her things ready for her departure. She wondered if she needed her weapons or not. She figured it was stupid to take them but took them anyways. But still, something was rather strange concerning the entire fiasco.

She moved out the door and walked through the Airship for the lower interior where the ramp was located. She waited for the men to work the controls and allow her to leave the ship. She gave them one glance as they lowered the ramp and dropped her on the ground. Once she was on the ground she made her way for the gondola at the top of the volcano. It wasn't a far trip and she was accompanied by two soldiers. Once she was secured in the gondola she was allowed to make her way across.

She glanced down once at the boiling water below through the thick cloud of steam and wondered what it would feel like to fall down into it before going back to her current situation.

The gondola docked on the tower and groaned as her uncle greeted her with open arms. She wasn't very happy to greet him like this, but she could stand it.

She walked into his hug and smiled her usually smile. He was the one to let go and quickly led her into his office. She was given some tea and then asked about her visit.

"I came here to speak with Zuko. He broke my heart you know?" The Warden nodded and sipped his tea. "I was hoping to speak with him concerning something he gave me before his _betrayal_. I'm sure you understand."

The Warden took another sip of his tea and looked over at his paperwork. "I'd rather not have you speak with that traitor. But since you're my niece and I'm not too keen on saying no to you, I'll let you. But please understand that you'll have only a few minutes with him."

"I understand. I don't have that long anyways. From what I understand I only have a few hours before the Airship leaves." She took one sip of her tea before continuing. "I'd also like to see a list of prisoners that recently came in for this week if I can. And failing that, can I see all the guards and have the recently added prisoners line up so I can check them over."

The Warden nodded gave the order to have Zuko moved to the holding cell so he could be interrogated. The two guards that received the orders gave him a nod. Once they were gone the Warden gave her a quick and said, "I'm curious on how you knew he was here when I only got him a few days ago. So how did you know he was even here?" He rose and began walking towards the door.

Mai smiled and followed. "I know Zuko pretty well."

The two walked for the roof as the guards were all rounded up. When the guards were all lined up and ordered to remove their helmets, she spotted her answer to the primary question that was plaguing her. Half-way down the line she spotted Sokka of the Water Tribe.

She smiled and walked past him as Sokka began to sweat from here appearance. The Warden watched his guards for a moment before watching his niece. There was a sudden shift in her eyes as she walked past the sweating guard. He wanted to pull the man to the side and speak with him but he didn't have any real reason just because of a shift in her eyes.

"Is there something wrong with my guards, Mai?"

"No. Not at all," she lied. "Can you take me to Zuko now?" The Warden gave her a sharp nod and took her towards the cell when Zuko was ready for her. When she was brought to the door, she glanced around before saying, "Give us a moment, Uncle. This will only be a minute or two."

"Of course." He bowed and departed. She walked in and he shut the door behind her, stepped back, and then listened in on her conversation.

Zuko, dressed in the prison garb, couldn't even look at her as she entered. "How'd you know I was here?"

"Because I know you so well."

"Yeah… but how did…"

"The Warden's my uncle you idiot." Zuko slapped his face and groaned. Mai glanced around the room before shutting the door and smiling. "The truth is, I guess I don't know you?" She unrolled a letter and shoved it into his chest. "All I get is a letter. You could have at least looked me in the eye as you tore out my heart."

"I didn't mean to."

"You didn't mean to?" She didn't believe that and began reading the letter. "Dear Mai. I'm sorry you have to find out this way. But I'm leaving…"

"Stop! This isn't about you. This is about the Fire Nation."

"Thanks Zuko. That makes me feel all better." She tossed the letter onto his head and watched it fall down onto the floor.

"Mai… I never wanted to hurt you. But I have to do this to save my country."

"Save it? You're betraying your country."

"That's not how I see it."

She looked him in the eye and stepped towards the corner of the room. "Why did you come here?"

"What?"

"Why did you come here? You know how dangerous this place. So why come? I can't figure that out. I know you pretty well. There's nothing here for you. And I know you weren't captured by our troops in a town two days from here. I'm not stupid. I may not have great ties with the military like you did, but I know enough to know we have no troops this far west of the Fire Nation. There's nothing out here for them. We go where the resources are. That's how we've always been. So why would you get captured by a team that's just two days way from here and brought here of all places? I think the answer is obvious. You didn't get captured. You came here with a purpose. And I can think of only one reason."

Zuko closed his eyes.

"I don't know what you came here for. But I know a lot about my family. It's hard not to keep in contact with them. Even when I traveled with Azula, I was able to keep in contact with my family all over the Fire Nation and in New Ozai. So tell me what's wrong with this letter that I received _five _days ago from my uncle."

She reached into her robes and withdrew another letter. Unlike the letter that Zuko had written, this one was written on a different style of paper. When he read it over and checked the date, he had to stop and think about what was going on. Five days ago he would have just arrived on Boiling Rock. Something was seriously wrong here.

He gave it back and shook his head. "I don't understand what's wrong with it."

She smiled. "You came here with someone. This is beyond you. I know that much." When she walked behind him, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know you came here with Sokka of the Water Tribe, a member of the Avatar's team." There was a grunt and she glanced out the cell door. She shoved it open and stepped outside. Looking left and right she found nothing and shrugged before returning to the cell. She turned back to Zuko. "I want some answers, Zuko. Start talking."

(-)

Naruto watched Zuko with dark eyes as he watched him get moved by the guards. Other guards ran about and grabbed up for some sort of a meeting. Naruto didn't pay them any mind as he watched the guards drop him off in a cell. They waited around for a moment before turning and bowing towards two figures. Naruto recognized them in an instant and groaned.

_What are the fucking chances? _

He wished he was in range for Zentrai to reach him so he could let him know what's going on.

When Mai entered the cell, the Warden shut the door and turned to leave only to stop and lean against the wall close by it. Naruto grumbled a curse and moved on the top level before lowering himself down so that he was above him. Naruto didn't catch what was being said on the inside, but it was clear that something was said that sparked his interest. He couldn't have that.

Before the Warden could rush in to stop their conversation. Naruto was on him before he could open the door. He wrapped one arm around his neck, yanked him up, and broke his neck with subtle ease. The Warden only had enough time to gasp and groan before his neck was broken and his throat was crushed.

Naruto pulled the man up and over the railing for the next floor and waited for Mai to return to Zuko. She had heard them. That much was pretty clear. Once she was gone, he jumped over the railing, fell two levels, and made his way to the freezer chambers. When he reached the first opened one he stuffed the Warden inside and made it so he wouldn't fall over and alert anyone that he was in here just yet.

After making sure the body was secured inside the cooler he ran back to the cell where Zuko was. When he was within range of the cell he got the call that the plan was in motion. And with the plan already in motion, Naruto was forced to play his hand.

He took the form of a guard and jumped into the cell with rapid hand gestures. "Ma'am, there's a riot in the yard. I'm here to protect you!"

Zuko laughed. "Trust me, she doesn't need it."

"I'm under direct orders from the Warden!"

Zuko used his antics to force him into protecting Mai until he could trap her in the cell. Naruto grabbed her up before she could follow after Zuko, but she managed to get loose and grabbed the bars of the cell. As Zuko slammed it shut and stared at her through the open bars, the former couple gave each other a hard stare before Zuko departed. Mai hissed angrily as she looked back at the guard. He was gone.

Mai had a moment of confusion before growling inwardly. _Assassins…_

(-)

Sokka, Suki, and Hakoda waited in the center of the yard in anticipation of the second phase of the plan. It was simple. They simply needed to start a riot to distract the guards. No doubt more than half would be brought to stop them, but they had already worked a way around that. They would capture the Warden and then use him as a hostage to ensure that they got across the boiling water.

As the prisoners were released into the yard and scurried about trying to find friends and others to speak with or fight with, Zentrai showed up with Naruto, Ty Lee, and Zuko trailing behind him. Once they were assembled Sokka took over.

"Okay, now we just need to start a riot and we should be good."

"_You thought that far out with this, huh?" _The mute glanced up at the balcony. Guards were already on the balcony to watch them. Some even looked a little worried at the moment. _"So all we need to do is start a riot and we're good?"_

"Don't forget the Warden. We'll have to capture him before leaving. With him we don't have to worry about having the line cut as we use the gondola."

"That's out of the question," Naruto groaned. "I killed him because he was about to find out about you Sokka from Mai when she spoke with Zuko. But I should be able to take care of any problems we deal with."

Zuko gave a hysterical gasp as he shouted, "You killed the Warden? What's wrong with you?"

"I couldn't let him figure out what was going on. We would have been screwed if he found out. So I had no other choice."

"You couldn't have just knocked him out? Mai's his niece."

"So you wanted him to find out about what we're about to do and make things twice as hard. He was eavesdropping on you when you spoke with Mai. If you wanted to jeopardize us you could have simply told the Warden about why you were here in the first place. Which, mind you, I'm amazed he never asked you about."

Zuko groaned and turned away.

"All we need is a riot, right?" Hakoda questioned. Sokka nodded. "Alright. I'll show you how it's done."

Naruto grabbed Hakoda before he could move. "_I'll _show you how it's done, old man. Just stay out of my way."

Hakoda was about to protest when Naruto got up into the face of a dozen men, punched them in, and then began beating a horde of men senseless. With brutish strength he tossed them around like ragdolls. The prisoners, male and female alike, began attacking with hatred in their eyes. It wasn't until Naruto had beaten over three dozen men did a full scale riot take place. And even then it didn't fully happen until Zentrai gotten them going with a scream to attack ringing in the minds of everyone.

As the fighting increased into a full scale riot, Naruto was able to slip away via clone that took his place during the middle of the fighting while he turned into a regular prisoner to sneak away. When he reached the others, Hakoda slapped a hand on his shoulder and flashed him a smile.

"Never call me an old man."

Naruto grabbed his hand, twisted it slightly, and replied. "Don't ever touch me in a friendly manner. I'm not your friend." The blond was about to state that it was time to leave when Chit Sang appeared. Naruto, already seemingly pissed about something, grabbed the man by his face and shoved it into the support pillar for the bridge to the gondola. "You're lucky I've got more important things to do right now. So stay out of my way and you won't die." As if to make his point, he drug his face down the stone pillar and slammed it into the ground. "We're leaving," he declared with annoyance. "And stay out of my way."

Zentrai whistled and then hissed mentally. Naruto's mind was clouded to him. That scared him.

The team moved through the fighting prisoners and rushed to the top where the bridge was. Naruto was the first to arrive and quickly began clearing the guards with brutal force. He destroyed anyone that got in his way and tried to get near the gondola to send it on its way before they could get to it. By the time the others got to him he had already killed eight people, left a half a dozen wounded, and had thrown a dozen more off the edge to let destiny handle their fate. Whether they died or not was lost to the blond.

"Get on the gondola. I'll cover you."

No one dared to argue with the Assassin. They quickly jumped into the gondola before he could turn his sights on them. Once they were on, Naruto pushed the lever forward, starting it and sending it across. He destroyed the controls knowing full well that even if they were destroyed they could still be stopped. That was the reason he was staying behind.

As the gondola started, Ty Lee ran to the edge and screamed at the blond. "Naruto! Come on! What are you doing?"

"Insuring that they don't stop the damn thing. I can run across the cables to get the other side."

Guards showed up and the conversation came to a halt.

Naruto grimaced as the guards came in rushing with weapons ranging from daggers to spears. Some of them used their Firebending to begin a preemptive strike against him. As soon as the first fireball was within five meters of him, he sidestepped the attack, moved with lightning speed and began tearing them apart. Blood splattered against the ground in pools.

The guards attacked in mass. Spears were thrown. Swords were broken and left lying on the ground with bloodstains covering them. The blond moved like a thing possessed and tore them apart before some could react. With a captured sword he cleaved one mans' arm and head off with one mighty swing, spun around and slashed another in half diagonally from his left shoulder down to his third right rib, his eyes narrowing as if to make sure that he managed to slice his heart in two before turning to fight the others.

Eyes glowing crimson, he turned and tore into the other men with savage brutality. The men screamed as he tore into them, threw them around like ragdolls, and destroyed anyone that he could grab.

The blond stopped senselessly killing, glanced to his right and ran straight for an approaching squad armed with large pieces of metal to stop the gears of the cable holding the gondola up. They were smart and brought more than one. Naruto, not carrying, grabbed the first man, broke his neck, captured the piece of metal, and swung it with amazing strength. He heard the satisfactory sound of ribs and armor breaking as it connected with the poor guard closes to him. He swung a second time, broke the guards' chest piece and nearly broke him half as his body bent awkwardly. The man slumped to the ground dead from the impact of the makeshift weapon.

With the piece of metal still in hand, he swung for the face of the next guard. They were ready for him. He ducked under the swing, charged for a shoulder tackle, and was lucky to hit the teen. Naruto howled with rage, twisted the piece of metal and skewered the man from behind. He pinned the weapon into the stone, grabbed it, and swung it again, throwing the man off the bridge and into the water below. As the weapon was swung, leaving a bloody trail in the air, it connected with the face of a guard, breaking his jaw off and part of a his face in the process. It continued on its vector, smashing into another head, this time cracking the entire thing and dropping him before he could die.

The other guards move up behind him, grappled onto his back in an attempt to weigh him down. Naruto roared in a near mindless rage as he grabbed one with one arm, threw him off the bridge and into the water, grabbed another and threw him into the gears for the cables and heard him scream as he was crushed beneath the unforgiving metal, and spun to remove the rest. The men scattered and allowed the Firebenders to step up and attack.

An ominous red aura began wrapping around the blond as they attack. The heat of their combined fire left smoldering trails of smoke and crackling stone in their path for the Assassin. His aura warped and exploded outwardly as he shouted before vanishing before their eyes. Blood filled the air as the furthest of the guards watched their comrades become split apart by his overwhelming strength. By the time their bodies hit the ground he had moved for the guards in the back and began tearing them apart.

The former Jinchuuriki howled as he shoved one arm through the guards' gut and gripped the face of the man behind him. With a twist he snapped his neck and watched with a sickening joy as the first man he killed gasped for air and tried to scream. He died not moments later after his body registered the internal damage done to his internal organs. He ripped his arm to the right, tossed the two men, but not before using them as a shield to block the incoming arrows from the archers that were further back.

Naruto turned his gaze on them and charged with lightning speed. The archers fired with increasing speeds as he got closer and closer to them. The closer he got the quicker he became in dodging their shots. To anyone that watched it was a scary sight to know that the Yu Yun Archers, famous for their accuracy and ability to pin a fly from over one hundred yards without killing it, were missing the attacking Assassin.

The blond got in the first ones' face, grabbed his throat and crushed it before moving on. The others jumped apart. Two moved too slow and were instantly targeted by him. Naruto reached out, grabbed one arm, yanked it free, and proceeded to beat his companion with it until his face was crushed in and his body broken under the intense strength of a single kick.

The others opened fire for their lives. They tried to ensure that friendly-fire was avoided, but failed. Two were killed by incoming arrows on one side while one went down on the other side. Naruto leaned backwards, avoiding their shots, flickered out of existence, appeared behind the furthest team, grabbed one, threw him into another, grabbed another, broke his back over his knee, and punched another with so much force that his eyes exploded from their sockets.

The others opened fire on him. Naruto grabbed one that was still living and forced him up front to act as a shield. He screamed as he was punctured by the arrows. A mercy killing was granted by one archer that hit him directly in the left eye and skewered his brain with two arrows, instantly confirming the kill with two shots to the heart and another to the Liver and Kidneys. Naruto, still in a bloodlust rage, grabbed an explosive from his pouch, lit it, shoved it into the dead mans' back and hurled him into his companions. The explosion knocked them on their ass, bloodied their ears, and left some blinded by the blood in their eyes.

Naruto charged forward, one arm pulled back for a quick blow.

Twin plumes of fire spewed out and splashed against the ground striking the blond in the process. He hissed a curse, turned, and attacked the new force with murderous eyes. He drove a fist into the first guards' chest, tore out a lung, and kicked the body into another guard. A female guard ran at him. He sidestepped, grabbed her by her hair, and kicked her in the back while pulling on her hair. Her mouth opened but no words escaped as her neck was broken and stretched beyond human limits. He continued to pull and threw her at another guard. The man shouted in fear as he looked down at her wide eyed expression and matched it when Naruto got over him with one leg raised above his head and brought it down on the crown of his skull. He died under the force of the impact.

The remaining guards moved on him. They threw their weapons at him. Others attacked with Firebending. A small dagger imbedded itself in his left shoulder. He hissed, jumped above them, removed the weapon, and threw it down onto one of the guards. It tore into his eyes and was buried halfway into his skull. He dropped while screaming and made an attempt to yank it out before he suddenly stopped moving.

Naruto hit the ground, tucked, rolled, and sprang up like a cat pouncing on its prey. He grabbed two guards by their throats, shoved them into the ground while crushing their esophagus, stood up and threw away as they clutched their crushed throats. Without waiting, he jumped to the left, rolled, sprang up, and ran back to the bridge just in time to see the gears come to a stop. The guards, still hot on his trail, screamed a warning. Two had started working on the cable with a large saw blade. Naruto was on them before they could understand the warning.

He grabbed one, threw him into his companion, grabbed the metal that was holding the gears in place, and began beating the mean to death with it. Some managed to scream in pain before dying. Others died with horrified expressions on their faces as Naruto beat them into the ground until the metal was warped. Once the other guards had caught up the gears were already moving and gondola had begun its journey anew. However, before either of the guards could attack, Naruto, with a war cry, tossed the bent piece of metal like a giant boomerang and watched it spear one man, drag him along, and send him colliding with another man. They tumbled off the bridge to the yard below where the riot was now officially stopped.

What guards remained began to get smart. They circled the blond and attacked in pairs. They were mindful of friendly fire to an extreme and were able to avoid being hit by their own attacks. Naruto, seemingly angry beyond all reason, closed his eyes and yelled like a man forced to watch his most horrifying memories. It sent shivers down their spines as he blurred out of existence, appeared behind one guard, reached into his back and yanked out his spinal cord. The man dropped like a puppet cut from its strings.

A guard screamed in a blood gurgling rage as he was punctured by an arrowed when he got behind the blond. Naruto, having forgotten about the Yu Yun Archers, growled in annoyance to his forgetfulness and threw the last of his explosives he had at them. The bombs exploded in their faces, some getting away before it happened while others were unfortunate and not fast enough to avoid the explosion that killed them or wounded them mortally.

Some of the archers were back on their feet faster than what Naruto thought possible and attacked. Naruto dodged one arrow, got hit by another in the right thigh, and then grabbed another guard to use him as a shield. His "shield" screamed as it was punctured by arrow after arrow and then silenced as one hit his jugular and another struck the inside of his mouth.

He discarded the body, pushed forward, and began attacking anew.

(-)

Ty Lee reached out for the Elite Assassin as the gondola began to move, but came up short. Naruto had dashed off into the fray of the fighting and began tearing the guards apart with bloody vengeance. His aura showed neither anger nor vengeance, which was strange with the way he was acting. It was almost blank, but it contained a small tint of something primal. Like an animal forced into a corner and acting out of self-preservation. She didn't know if it was possible for him to go through it, but something sparked in him to make him act like a wild beast.

Zentrai narrowed his eyes as he stepped up beside her, forced her back, and sat down to avoid being attacked by the Yu Yun Archers that were about to start taking crack-shots at them. The others followed suit without a word and began starring at Zentrai with a mixture of fear and curiosity.

"_I can't believe he returned to that again." _

Zuko peeked over the edge and ducked as a stray arrowed flew over his head. "What are you talking about? What's wrong with him?"

"_Naruto's been like this before. I don't fully understand what causes it, but it's happened about a year ago for some reason. He lost total control and just went berserk during the middle of a mission. I have a theory that he goes through this once a year, but I have no way of testing it because his first few years with us he didn't get this violent. Something triggers that I have no idea about. The only warning for this is that his mind becomes clouded. I think he loses all sense of reasoning. I could be wrong."_

"Yeah… well… I'd say he lost plenty of reasoning," Hakoda cut in. He grimaced and leaned against the metal hull of the gondola. "He's killing them with a piece of metal. It's already warped from how hard he's swinging the damn thing."

"_Not surprising,_" the mute grumbled irritably. He gave a weary sigh and looked to Ty Lee. She was peeking over the edge with frightful eyes. He checked her mind and looked away. _"Is this the first time you've seen a mindless soldier… or for that matter, a mindless killer in action?" _She checked him over once, nodded, and then went back to watching the one-side match between guards and an Assassin. _"Don't fret too much over this. Naruto's not himself right now. Something triggered this. Not sure what did it, but he's not himself. He should snap out of it sooner or later."_

There was a strange pause as the blond blinked and then rose up.

"_Well that about fucking sucks!" _

The gondola came to a sudden, albeit, slow, stop, and sent them crashing into the other end of the gondola. Ty Lee screamed as it swung one way and then let gravity take over to yank it the other way like it was a swing. She was thrown outside the gondola.

Zentrai, who had landed on top of Sokka, rose up before she could fully fall out and grabbed her arm. She dangled over the edge, fear in her eyes as the Assassin leaned over from her weight and constant rocking. He started to tip over the edge. He groaned as he slipped over the edge, grabbed the edge of the gondola and held on for dear life while Ty Lee screamed for hers.

"This is probably the moment you want me to tell you I love you, right?" She grumbled with a worried smile. "But the truth is I don't. I really, really, do hate you. You're the second person in my life that I've ever hated with all of my body and soul."

"_Don't feel too bad. I hate everything about you too. Well, with the exception of your mouth that is."_

Ty Lee stared at him for a moment before saying, "You can drop me now if you want." Zentrai flashed her a smile and began to haul her up to him when she gasped. He blinked and lowered her. "Mai! What are you doing on the bottom of the gondola?"

Zuko ran to the side where they were at after finally being able to rise without falling over as the gondola shook, and beckoned for Ty Lee to take his hand. "Ty Lee, we have to get you up here right now."

"Mai is down here!" Zuko gawked before yanking Ty Lee into the gondola. When she was yanked back inside he looked over the edge to see Zentrai pulling Mai up handing her to him. Zuko took her hand when she offered it and pulled her inside the protection of the gondola as it started up. When Zentrai got inside, Zuko said, "What the hell were you thinking, Mai?"

"I came here with you because you're not smart enough to know how to pilot the Airship. Though I'm a bit surprised to know you guys are with him." Her eyes turned to Ty Lee. "So you were really an Assassin. Who did you kill in the Fire Nation? I remember seeing you at Ty Lee's gravesite."

The young acrobat grimaced. That had been the last time she had seen her. "I'm not an Assassin, Mai." Zentrai grabbed Mai before Ty Lee could say anything else and was restrained. The look on her face was more than enough to make it clear. "I'm sorry for deceiving you like that, Mai. But I had no other choice in getting away from the Fire Nation. I'm sorry."

"_As interesting as this is," _the mute cut in. _"We have a job to do. You can have your reunion later onboard the Airship if we can capture it before it takes off."_

"And if it takes off? What do we do?" Hakoda questioned.

"_We can wait for my third backup plan to kick into effect. With Lyra waiting with the Avatar, she can send a message to the others are our nearest outpost and send a ship to get us if we're not back within another four days. I told her to wait for about two or three weeks. Can't really remember right now."_

"And why is that?" Sokka joked.

"_Because I'm trying to make sure that Ayane isn't going to get out of these restraints, kill us, and make sure that Ty Lee and Zuko aren't about to attack us either. You three may know each other and two of you may have sworn to help us out, but let's face it, we can't fully trust you."_

No one dared to speak up when that claim was made.

Ty Lee rushed back to the edge of the gondola where she thought she would be closer to the blond and watched with wide eyes as his aura began to expand. A blast of wind rocked the gondola and she saw it again. The monster that plagued her thoughts. What started as a red living flame turned into a head, one tail, then four, and then finally nine as the massive creature rose its head up and roared with all the power it could muster. She had neither words to describe what she saw nor air to scream with when it turned its sights on her.

Ty Lee finally regained her senses, stared at the thing, and then waited. It, too, seemed to wait for something. As if some higher power were forcing it to still its unfathomable power and keep it from doing anything. And as she looked it over, she saw something within all the hatred and rage that it displayed for her to see, and saw a tingling of guilt and fear. The speck in the aura was small, but just enough so that she knew it was still scared by something. Something primal in all of life was marked within the burning aura of hatred.

"It's afraid of… dying." Zentrai gave her a funny glance. She was speaking with herself. She shook her head and realized her mistake. "It's just an after aura. An imprint left behind, marking it for something he feared in its final moments. It was afraid of dying right up until the end."

She was certain of that. The creature of an aura roared into life and she was certain than that her words had been accurate. The aura, Dark Spirit or whatever it had been, was an imprint that had left a long time ago. The aura inside the aura showed proof that it was gone by the light tint it still bore. It was dead. Had been dead for years. She didn't know how long, but it was no longer there with Naruto. Its power was all that remained.

The gondola came to a stop and Zuko tore open the door. He stood in the way to hold it open as the others rushed out. Ty Lee was the last one to leave, but stayed behind to scream for the blond Assassin as he continued his bloody rampage of destruction.

She watched his aura shift from blank to understanding. He was back in control of his body. Whatever had taken over left in a hurry and was replaced by an aura of reasoning.

Naruto turned, tossed something at a guard, and ran onto the cable. Two clones had appeared from the shadows to take his place so he could away. They fought hard but the Yu Yun Archers proved too great for two simple clones that were in the same shape Naruto was in. She saw them limp into the fight just as Naruto limped across the cable.

Naruto was halfway across the cable when the archers began firing at him. She screamed for him to hurry. His aura showed joy that they're aim was horribly off. They weren't accustomed to firing into steam that helped in keeping the arrows they fired higher for a longer amount of time. But that issue was quickly resolved. With great speed they fixed their error and began getting closer to him. The distance was greater than what they were used to, but it made little difference. Corrections were made. Arrows were fired.

Ty Lee ran back to the side of the cabin where the gondola sat waiting for another trip across to the prison and waited for him. He was fifteen meters out when the first arrow struck him. She screamed in fear as his eyes widened. Pain lashed through her as it did him. Her pain was a phantom pain in sympathy for him. His aura darkened as if the possession was about to hold him fast again. It faded.

Another arrow struck. She saw that the first one had struck his lower left Calf. The second one struck his upper forearm. He spun and fell off the cable just as a third arrow raced forward, striking him in the right arm near the shoulder.

Naruto was within catching distance though. The young acrobat reached up, grabbed him, fell backwards, and was thankful that their fall down the steep volcano was on her rather than him. Her back was sore when they hit the bottom. She could feel her shirt missing on her back, but paid it no mind as Naruto's aura began to dim. He was in pain, on the verge of losing consciousness it seemed.

The former member of Team Azula rose up, one arm wrapped around Naruto's back and his arm draped over her shoulders for support. She had him on his feet and slowly began to move towards the Airship. She had little time to look it over, but she knew where it was. It was a smaller one that the others she had seen or heard about during her time in the Fire Nation before her betrayal.

Bodies were being dumped off by Hakoda and Sokka while Suki tended to the tethers that kept it grounded.

"Naruto's been hurt," Ty Lee screamed.

Hakoda was the first to her side and carefully grabbed the Assassin. He groaned and tried to say something. Hakoda told him to keep quiet as they got him to the lift. Suki took out the last tether and the thing lifted into the sky. Naruto was placed on the ground while Zuko and Zentrai got them into the air. Zuko, along with Mai, knew how to work some of the controls. Not enough to get them into a combat situation, but enough to get them flying and away from danger.

"We need to get him to a room where he can be comfortable!" Ty Lee argued. Suki nodded without hesitation and helped Hakoda in lifting him up. Naruto was still conscience and clearly annoyed with the situation as it was. "Hang on, Naruto! We're going to get those out of you! Just hold on!"

"You don't have to yell," he grumbled. He hissed as if karma had kicked him for his words when Hakoda shifted his grip on the teen and touched the spot where a dagger had been thrown into his back. The Water Tribe leader offered an apology as Ty Lee threw open one of the doors where a master bedroom was located. "Nice place," he managed with a sarcastic smile.

Hakoda placed him on the bed and forced him to sit up. "Go get Zentrai! He's going to want to know what happened and what we have to do!"

Suki shot him a hard look and then closed her eyes. When she opened them, she said, "He already knows and is on his way with Zuko and Mai."

"How did you…"

"_I can speak into your mind," _Zentrai cut him off as he pushed opened the half-closed door. Zuko trailed behind him with Mai in his arms. He seemed just like Zentrai was. _"Naruto, you don't get along with archers, do you?" _Naruto managed the middle finger and then groaned at the aspect of moving around. _"We have to remove those. You know that right?"_

"No. I had no idea."

The mute laughed. Naruto was in a lot of pain if he was making that sort of a comment this fast.

Zentrai gave Zuko a broad knife with a leather handle and ordered him to keep it hot. Zuko was quick to do as he was told and began heating the knife. With another knife in hand, Zentrai cut off Naruto's clothes around the arrows. He considered removing Naruto's pants for Ty Lee's sake, but realized that was beyond the limits of humor for the time.

"_Hold him still for the first one. We have to make it so that he can lie down for the others." _Hakoda, Ty Lee, and Suki all grabbed hold of the blond to keep him steady. Sokka was off to the side getting bandages ready. Zentrai licked his lips and declared, _"On the count of three I'm pulling it out." _Naruto gave an annoyingly slow nod as his right eye twitched.

Zentrai gave no warning as he yanked out the arrow. Naruto screamed as the arrows in his right upper arm was yanked out. His screaming got higher when Zuko was ordered to place the cherry red knife on Naruto's flesh and burned the hole together with Hakoda pressing the flesh together as best he could. When the flesh was completely mended together by the heat, the blood being trapped inside his body, Zuko pulled back and began heating it up again.

With the first one out of the way, Zentrai moved to the one in his right shoulder. Naruto groaned in agony as the mute began working on the second one. When it was removed and sealed they shoved him down onto his stomach so they could get the last one out. He ordered Sokka to help and requested Mai to stand near him with bandages for this one.

Naruto got no warning like before and screamed for two seconds before passing out. Ty Lee nearly freaked when she saw this but was calmed when his aura showed blank dreams and a peaceful mind. Zuko sealed it up with the hot knife and then allowed Zentrai to apply the bandages.

Once they were finished they stepped back and looked at each other. _"Hakoda, take Sonia to the brig and lock her up. Zuko, take command of the ship and get us to our friends. Sokka, go with him. It's a two man job and you could use the experience. Ty Lee, stay here and watch over him. If he dies, you die. Understand?" _

They nodded and began their assigned tasks. Suki remained behind and looked at the blond before her eyes drifted to Ty Lee. Zentrai left to find some clothes for the teen.

Ty Lee was about to pull the blankets over him when Suki moved to his side and began removing his clothes.

"What are you doing?" Ty Lee was horrified.

Suki shot her a harsh glare. "No point in ruining the sheets with his blood. It'll just soak into them and keep him cold."

Ty Lee laughed and scratched the back of her head. She hadn't thought about that. But the idea of Naruto being naked brought back her fantasy and her eyes danced over him hungrily as Suki got his shirt off, then his pants. He wore nothing else under his pants, much to the surprise of the young acrobat. Suki shoved any thoughts aside on the issue as she rolled him over and began removing the blood stained sheets beneath. The bed was already soaked in his blood, but they could move him easily.

Zentrai returned with a robe and looked at the scene. _"Why the hell do blonds have more fun?" _Naruto's pants were thrown at the mute. He grumbled a curse in their minds and helped in moving him to a room with no blood covered bed to sleep on. Once Naruto was in a new room with Suki and Ty Lee to watch over him, Zentrai breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the sky. _"Now we just have to worry about Mai doing something stupid." _

He walked off to find something to eat.

(-)

It took two days to reach the others and get them onboard the Airship. Katara was mortified to know that they had brought Mai along, but her father calmed her nerves and got her busy working on Naruto. His wounds weren't fully healed and he was still sleeping. She was hesitant to even work on him in the presence of Ty Lee, but her father got her working on him after a few harsh words.

Before they left they stocked up on supplies, sent a message to Rehka stating that they had rescued Hakoda, and were now heading towards Ember Island where Den would pick up the smaller Airship and take it back to study.

During this time Sokka had grown accustom to the Airship and learned how to fly it with relative ease from Zentrai. Zentrai, once asked on how he learned to fly something without ever being around one before, told Sokka that had learned how to fly it by asking the original pilots on how it worked and what certain levers did. They had answered his questions without realizing it when they thought about what each lever or button did. After learning how to fly it, they were on their way. It would take them four days to reach Ember Island, but no one seemed to care.

Ty Lee never left Naruto's side, along with Suki with the exception of the one time she had to chase after Zentrai with the threat of death lingering in her words when it was learned that Zentrai had once slept with her. Of course it was soon learned that Zentrai had even supposedly slept with Mai which sparked a fight between the Magnetism-Bender and Firebender which ended with the Firebender being thrown into the brig.

After two days of traveling, Zentrai finally decided that it was time get the dirty part of his job done and deal with Mai. He wasn't going to kill her. So long as she was around, Zuko was unquestionably loyal and did everything in his power to help teach Aang Firebending. If he killed her, he'd clearly turn on them. To keep her in line, that left only one option.

Zentrai stared at the Brooding Weapon Mistress as she glared right back at him.

"You here to kill me," she asked finally.

"_No."_

"Shocking."

"_Not really." _He raised one hand and bound her to the back wall. She hissed angrily as she tried to break free. _"The last time we saw each other I was in this sort of position if I remember correctly." _He opened her cell and produced a small vile of liquid. Mai's thoughts ran rapid for a moment until she saw his smile. _"Yes. This will kill you if you don't receive the proper antidote. Luck for you, I have the medicine to hold you from death so long as you remain loyal to us. Now drink it or die. Those are your only options."_

Mai was hesitant and then drank it regardless. It was bitter going down and she felt what little pride she had vanish with it. Zentrai, now in full control of Mai, released her and allowed her out of the brig to walk around. If she sabotaged them, she'd still die. If she ran, she'd die. She knew that in ordered to live she had to stay by his side from now on.


	29. Chapter 29

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 29

Katara watched with boredom in her eyes as Zuko taught Aang Firebending. Aang was moving along great, but it seemed that he lacked the real focus to fight with the power needed for it. At least it seemed that way to Katara. She was no Firebender by any means, but she did seem to understand that its power was based on emotions in some degree.

No matter how much she wanted to not believe it, Firebending was something Aang needed to learn. She didn't want him to learn it, not from Zuko anyways. She could have tolerated Iroh, as he was mentioned by Zuko as an idea for training if they could find him, but Zentrai had shot the idea down stating that it would take them too long to find him. So they were left with Zuko for the time being.

Hakoda tapped his daughter on the shoulder and she averted her eyes from the two shirtless teens to her father for a brief moment. "What?"

Hakoda bristled at her words but calmed himself down enough to not yell at her. "Nothing… I just came to talk with you, that's all."

She huffed in annoyance and continued to watch with narrowed eyes.

"I wanted to know what you thought about Zuko. I heard about what happened between you two, and I wanted to resolve this issue now since I think this will be the only down time we can have to speak with each other. I'm sure you understand what I mean by this." She nodded mutely and stopped listening. "I know how much you hate the Fire Nation for what they did to your mother… my wife. I can't forget about her. I can't forget what they did to her and what she did for us. But I think I can forgive them, if not all of them, then maybe Zuko. He had nothing to do with her death. So I know he can't be blamed."

The young Waterbender growled. She was still halfway paying attention. It irked him to know she was brushing him off, but there was nothing he could to really make her listen to him.

He shifted uneasily and looked straight at the two boys. They were having an easy time training it seemed. They moved in perfect sync with one another. It was almost like dancing to the untrained eyes.

"Why do you think I should give up on the idea of avenging my mother?" She turned and faced him with anger flashing in her eyes. "How can you say I should even forgive them when they killed her in cold blood? Why would you even say that?"

Hakoda considered a response but had none. He didn't know what to say.

"I can't forgive them. I'll never forgive them."

"You say that now," Hakoda whispered. "But what about Jeong Jeong? He's Fire Nation and yet you wanted him to train Aang in the art of Firebending. Why would you want him as opposed to Zuko if he's Fire Nation as well?"

She gave her father a hard glare before something tugged at the back of her mind. Irony was a good word to describe it, but she didn't think that was the case. Maybe it was beyond irony and just pity and stupidity for realizing her own faults. Jeong Jeong didn't wear the Fire nation uniform.

Her mind drifted for a few minutes before Aang was given a break. Zuko grabbed his towel and dried himself off while Aang stepped up to Katara and flashed a smile. "We're going to take a break," he informed them. "I was curious on why you were glaring at Zuko the entire time." He whispered.

Hakoda opened his mouth to speak but closed it instead. He didn't know where to begin.

"What were you guys talking about?" Aang inquired.

Hakoda took a deep breath. "We were talking about Zuko and the Fire Nation. I'm sure you understand why."

Aang nodded mutely and decided to sit closer to Katara. She gave him the momentary glance he deserved before looking away.

"I'm not saying that you should just forget about what happened, Katara. What I'm saying is that you shouldn't blame Zuko for something he didn't do. He didn't kill my wife. So why blame him?"

Katara had nothing to say to her father for that one. Zuko wasn't there to kill her mother. But that still didn't mean anything to her. He was Fire Nation. Fire Nation killed her mother. What difference was there? There was no difference. Even now, with him helping Aang to learn Firebending, he was no different from back then. He was still doing this for his sake, not for theirs. Sure their goals were the same, but it was just the same as back then. He was doing this for himself and no one else. That was how it appeared in her mind and would always appear in her mind.

"Katara," Aang waved a hand in front of her face. "You were zoning out." She pushed his hand away and glared at him for a brief moment. "I know you don't like Zuko, but please, for my sake, put aside your anger and hatred for him, and help him help me. I know it looks like I'm learning Firebending like it's easy or something, but the truth is it isn't easy. I need help in learning and this is Zuko's first time teaching someone, sort of like who you were when you were trying to teach me Waterbending before we found a Master to teach you."

Katara growled out, "So you just want me to forget about what he did to me… to US… in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se?" She flailed her arms around as it to make things more drastic. "I understand that you all think he's changed, but I don't think he's changed at all. He's just using you for his own ends."

Aang shook his head. "I won't deny that he's using us. We're using him. _I'm _using him to learn Firebending. Everyone uses everyone, Katara. I know that's sounds wrong, but it's the way the world works. I knew that from the very beginning."

Katara turned away with annoyance flashing across her feathers. She didn't want to believe that Aang was using him either. And since she didn't want to argue the point, she just caved in and began trying to think of a way to change the subject.

"We should go figure out what Sokka and Suki are doing. I don't like leaving them alone to be honest."

Hakoda considered her words and then nodded grimly. No matter how old his son was, he didn't think he was old enough to be doing _that _just yet.

(-)

Ty Lee stared at the unconscious form of Naruto as he slept in the large bed assigned to him. Originally it belonged to one of the many servants that they had in this place during their stay on Ember Island, back when they were a family. The fact that Naruto got this bed, at the request of Zuko, was funny to everyone, even Zentrai. But of course the reason he was put in here was because it was also the closest to Zentrai's room, one of the five Master Bedrooms in the house. Because of the weird rooms in the house, everyone got a room to themselves with the exception of Suki, who, at night, would sometimes sneak off into Sokka's room for kicks.

The young acrobat gave a sigh of frustration. Naruto had been like this for about a week, coming in and out of consciousness when he could. When she checked his aura after he awoke the first time she saw the faint outlines of depression and fear but it was masked by joy and anger upon seeing his friends alive. She didn't know whether this was because he had been shot by the arrows or because of the state of mind he had been in when he was last active.

Rai whined for some attention and moved over to Ty Lee. The young acrobat nearly screamed when Rai planted his head in her lap and began to lick at the roof of his mouth. Its aura flashed brightly and then darkened. Ty Lee hesitated before placing her hand on top of his head and began to stroke his fur. What she remembered of the large beast was that it wasn't very keen on having someone other than Naruto pet him.

Rai's aura flickered into a show of sorrow and Ty Lee understood instantly. Rai wanted to be loved by his master, but Naruto was incapable of doing that at the moment and Ty Lee was clearly the next best option.

With tentative ease she gently petted the large beast and smiled only when it began to purr from the affection it was getting. Ty Lee didn't know if that was a good thing on her end or a bad thing from her end considering that Rai never seemed to adore attention like Shibaru did. So why did he suddenly want it now?

A soft groan resided from the bed and Naruto fidgeted before rising up with a show of annoyance spreading across his face. He glanced left towards the window and then right to spot Ty Lee with Rai's head in her lap. He chuckled and Rai jumped from his spot next to the young acrobat and onto the bed.

"Did you miss me, Rai?" He opened his maw as wide as he could and yawned. Naruto laughed and scratched at Rai's ears with a smile on his face. "So how long have I been out?"

His gaze turned and focused on the young acrobat as she blushed. Sitting straight up, a large beast in his lap, and, whether known or unknown, completely naked under the thin sheets, she turned away. Naruto smiled and told Rai to get down so he could turn and face her fully.

"How long have you been watching over me?" He grabbed the sheets and stood. Ty Lee turned so that her back was to him. He was crushed by it momentarily. His mind drifted back to the mission and he shook his head while reaching out. He grabbed her shoulder and she flinched. "Your back wasn't healed, was it?" He half asked, half stated.

Ty Lee gently sighed and turned so that one eye faced him. "No."

He turned away and walked towards the dresser where his clothes were located. He dropped the sheet and grabbed his pants. Ty Lee kept her back to him and slowly inched around when he grunted. His pants were on but his shirt, or what had remained of it, was in his hands. With a sigh of frustration he threw it at the corner of the room and turned to face her.

"Where's Katara?"

"Outside with Aang watching him learn Firebending from Zuko."

"We're going outside to have her heal your back."

Without waiting for a reply he grabbed her wrist and began pulling her behind him. She resisted for a moment and then let him drag her along. He had the authority to do what he wanted with her. She couldn't refuse and order, not from him or Lyra. Zentrai held the real power, but they could also order her around. Thankfully, Zentrai was the only one to order her around.

Naruto ignored the dark walls, dingy paintings, and dusty floors as he marched for the exit with Rai tagging along, his tail waving back and forth in a sign of joy. When they reached the doors and were outside, Naruto had to cover his eyes with his hands in order to wait for his eyes to adjust. After a brief moment in the sun they were set and he continued his march.

They passed through the courtyard, through the garden, around the pond, and onto the outer deck that overlooked the beach in front of the building. Katara, who sat in the shadow of a tree, stared out at the beach where Zuko was continuing his training with Aang beside him.

Naruto jerked Ty Lee to his side and groaned. Katara turned slowly and blinked at the presence of the two.

"You're awake? Good. I was beginning to worry about you."

"Heal her." He shoved Ty Lee in front of the Waterbender, his eyes narrowed into slits as if to make it a threat.

Katara's face twisted into a look of disgust. "I was unaware that she was injured."

Naruto opened his mouth for a retort but Ty Lee cut him off. "I didn't tell anyone about it." Naruto closed his mouth. "I didn't want to be of any trouble."

Naruto dismissed her words and nodded to the young acrobat. "Heal her. She's been injured for a while I would guess. Her back is the problem."

Katara was hesitant to rise and tend to Ty Lee's wounds, but complied soon after a few thoughts about what Zentrai, or god forbid Naruto, might do to her if she didn't listen.

"Take your shirt off please." Katara's hands were surrounded by water as she spoke. Ty Lee hesitated, torn between the orders Naruto was giving out and the sheer insanity of this request. She didn't want to undress in front of Naruto. "Ty Lee," Katara said with some force, "take your shirt off."

Ty Lee looked to the blond, but he didn't seem to figure the problem out. She removed her shirt and got a snort of annoyance when the shirt came off. Ty Lee didn't wear any bandages or anything to help hold or conceal her breasts. And off course Ty Lee was bigger than her in breast size.

Katara continued her work on healing the young female while Ty Lee kept her eyes closed. She kept them closed because she was afraid of what Naruto might be doing.

Katara cringed as she pulled out a small rock. A trickle of blood began to flow out. Ty Lee winced from the pain and pulled away from the Waterbender before relaxing again.

"You've got some pebbles in your back," Katara explained. She used her Waterbending to continue her healing and pull out two more small pebbles before giving her the okay. "Why didn't you mention this to me sooner? You do know that you could have had serious problems in the future if they were left unattended to."

Ty Lee mercifully opened her eyes and stared intently into the blue eyes of her blond crush. Naruto stared directly into her eyes, much to her shock. She had never met a guy that didn't stare at her breasts. Yes she didn't enjoy it, but the attention was one thing she always wanted. It was just that sort of attention was disturbing and further proved that men were, as one of her sisters once said, dirty creatures.

"Are you going to put your shirt on?" Naruto asked Ty Lee. She blushed, forgetting that she was shirtless, and hastily put it on. Naruto scratched sheepishly at the back of his head as he turned away from her. "Thank you, Katara, for healing her. I know you don't like her, just like how you don't like me, but that does mean a lot to me that you healed her." The Waterbender shrugged and returned to watching the others on the beach. "No reply, huh? I guess you really don't like me or the things I ask you to do, which is very little."

Katara gave a growl of annoyance before huffing in defeat. "I don't like you. You know that, right?" Naruto nodded with a half-smile on his face. She glared at him for his smile before continuing. "You let innocent people die for your actions when we were invading the Fire Nation. You cared very little for the safety of _us_. And you only worried about Aang. You never once worried about us."

"And you're point?"

"My point is that I hate you."

Naruto rolled his eyes. Hating him or not did very little to change their situation. She could hate him all she wanted. He didn't care.sk you to do, which is very little."'to watching the others on the beach. it on. nity of this request. nt of the building. djus He just wished she wasn't such a bitch at the moment. He could go without all her hateful words too.

Naruto decided to leave. Ty Lee followed without hesitation.

(-)

Lyra watched the heavily one-sided battle between Zentrai and Sokka with very little concern. Sokka was still angry about Zentrai sleeping with Suki so many years ago. Even after all of Suki's words to Sokka, he was still angry. It irked both girls to know how stupid Sokka was and how stupid boys could be. They got jealous over things like this.

With a depressing sigh, she turned her sights on something more entertaining and fruitful. Zuko and Aang were practicing their Firebending and both were looking pretty good. She was no judge of such a thing in their arts, but she figured they were doing pretty good. They could at least give Inferno a run for his money if they teamed up in a Firebending contest. That was a good thing.

Mai, who sat next to her in a bikini, sipped on her water before saying, "Do you think the war will end if Aang defeats the Fire Lord?"

Lyra gave her a slight glance before returning her gaze to Zentrai. The mute had thrown Sokka down and was sitting on him. From Sokka's facial expression it was pretty clear that Zentrai had probably farted on him too.

"Doubtful," she replied.

Mai gave an annoyed glanced to the woman before watching her boyfriend train the Avatar.

That thought did stick with Lyra. She was worried about how and when the war would end. She had always imagined that it would end, just not during her lifetime. She had hoped that it would end twenty or thirty years later after they were dead for when the backlash from the war hit.

She had once thought about how the world would end and how the war would end. She favored the idea of the war ending, but not until she was dead at times. And now the war was already starting to show signs of reaching an end. What kind of an end she had no idea on knowing, but she did know that when it ended she'd have to face the hard music of life and her choices. So many choices… all of them seeming so right at the time, now seemed so wrong.

Her eyes closed, she inhaled the scent of the ocean and savored it with a sly smile.

The crunch of sand under foot made her turn and face Naruto and Ty Lee. The blond was devoid of a shirt, but neither Ty Lee nor Lyra really cared. Upon seeing Mai, Ty Lee ran up to her and began chatting with her about how things were going for her and how she had been since her last interrogation with Zentrai. While they did that, Naruto and Lyra walked off to talk on their own.

"The war will end soon," she told him. "I can feel it."

Naruto didn't share her somber talk. "Isn't that a good thing?"

She gave him a flat look. "Did you already forget what we've done to keep Zentrai here?" Her eyes narrowed into slits. Naruto had to think for a moment before looking away in shame. "We did something pretty horrible to him. What are we going to do when the war is over?"

Naruto shrugged. "As I recall, it Gen Fu's idea in the first place. He wanted to keep Zentrai in the war to better his skills and because we needed him. It was because of her we had to split apart and because of what we did. With any luck, he'll never find her."

Lyra gave him the hardest of glares before deciding that it wasn't worth it. They had both hoped that the day would never come when the war ended during their lifetime. They just hoped that if he did find out they tricked him, they'd already be dead or on some remote island so far away that the mute couldn't find them. Either way they looked at it now, they were somewhat screwed.

Naruto gave a shrug before returning to Ty Lee. She was in the middle of talking about how she had changed her hair color to make it white. Naruto half-listened as he sat down next to the two, flexed his right arm and watched Zentrai continually throw Sokka around. He didn't know what was actually funnier; Zentrai throwing Sokka around or Mai _actually _listening to Ty Lee's constant talking about how she changed her hair and came up with her new appearance. He found them both rather funny.

Mai finally gave an exasperated sigh and lightly struck her friend on the head. "If you went to all the trouble to hide yourself, why did you have someone change your hair color? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of trying to stay hidden?"

"I never gave him my name and I had already attained this." She gestured her clothes and leaned back on the sand. "Besides, he wasn't in the mood for asking questions. He couldn't speak. At all I think. The weird thing was that his aura kept spiking, but not at me. It was directed at someone else."

Naruto gave the girl a cautious glance before looking back at the two warring teens. Sokka was trying to murder the mute without any luck. Hakoda tried to calm his son down while Suki seemed to enjoy watching the show that was being put on. Of course she had tried already to stop Sokka and make him understand, but the Water Tribe Warrior seemed to only see her time with Zentrai as a stain on her honor and his own. Sokka was still young and didn't know that Suki probably had dozens of other boys after they had left. If he was this way right now, it was almost laughable to think of how he would be later on if Suki and him fell through and he went looking for other girls.

Ty Lee stopped talking and stared at her crush with curious glance. Naruto missed it and was too caught up in his thoughts on what would come in the future to notice that she was looking at him longingly.

Mai jabbed her elbow into her friend and said, "Have you… you know… been with him yet?" The acrobat shook her head hastily. Mai sighed. "You'll never find another man like him, Ty Lee. You should go for him while you have the chance. I mean… you said you had been looking for answers from him."

The white haired girl groaned. That had been the whole reason she hunted him down. But hadn't she got some answers from the short time she had been with them? She learned that Naruto, despite the way he had acted when they first met, and from the book, was a different person that what she believed him to be. He was kind and courteous still, but he could freeze his heart over and become a ruthless killer. He was cold and unforgiving when he had to be, and kind and caring when he had to be. He was the perfect man created in a world of war and hatred.

"I have learned a few things about him," she admitted warily. Mai perked up. "He's still human. No matter how powerful he is… no matter how many people he can slay… he's still human. Even he can fall to the simplest of people. But I think I gained more questions by the man who interrogated me. He made me look at the world in a different perspective that I never thought about."

Ty Lee smiled and looked to the sky.

"A lot of people have died during this war. They died in easy and simple ways. We cut them. We stab them. We crush them. We burn them." She closed her eyes and felt the sun's rays vanish from behind a cloud. "Why do people lie? Why do people fight? Why do people risk their lives for one another? What is the value of friendship?" She opened her eyes and frowned. "I see the world through the auras of the people around me, so when I was asked these questions, I had no answer. But I think there is no answer for them because they are a lifelong question we all want answered but will never have the luxury of having an answer."

Mai looked back to Zuko as the Avatar spoke with him about something. He didn't seem to understand one part of the training.

Ty Lee sat up straight. "What does happiness look like?" Mai blinked. "Not the color of the aura. I was asked what happiness looked like and I told Calamity that it was a pink aura. But he said he didn't want the color. He wanted to know what happiness itself looked like. How could you describe happiness to someone? He wanted to know what that looked like."

"I don't know. I really don't know."

Naruto chuckled and Ty Lee blinked. "Happiness is whatever one makes of it. But a teacher of mine once said happiness would be in the shape of a glass if you could give it a physical form. Because, although you don't normally notice it, it's definitely there. The proof is that you just have to change your point of view slightly and then that glass will reflect the light."

The two females stared at him in wonder before Mai smiled. "I suppose that would make an excellent form for it."

Naruto nodded mutely and looked down at the tired and disgruntled Sokka.

"It's scary when someone closes their mind," Ty Lee told them. "I never thought about it before because I tried to avoid the war and all the fighting. I tried so hard, but I never managed to escape it. But the future the Fire Nation is creating is a terrible one grasped with bloodstained hands. There is no future in this world for those that have died or for those that have done the killing. And all those that have died had goals and dreams that were crushed by another."

"But everyone has something as important as those," the former Jinchuuriki informed her. "Parents, siblings, friends, and lovers, people who are important to them. They trust and help each other. The bond between the people important to you ever since birth grows stronger as time passes. It's beyond reason. It will be so for the ones who are connected, because it is precious."

"But," Mai countered, "it's painful when someone dies."

"It is painful in a world of war." Naruto stood up straight, dusted his pants off, and stared out at his friend as Hakoda stepped up to defend his sons' honor. "Out of love, sacrifice is born. Through that sacrifice, grief is born. Hatred is born from grief. And when their hatred controls them, they turn into wicked people. A man who kills a man and then that mans' friend kills him for revenge. How can that solve anything in our world, let alone save it from the destructive cycle of death we're traveling down?"

The two girls were quiet for a moment. Ty Lee said, "It's not right, but we have lived in an era of fighting and that is all we know how to do. In a world where are hands only know how slay, what kind of a life will we leave for the next generation if this is all we know how to do?"

Lyra sighed inwardly as she thought about it with her blond friend. When she thought about it, she had no answer for it. She was sad and ashamed to know that the future was a dark as the way it really seemed.

"As bleak as the future seems, we can't just give up on it." Mai declared with certainty. "I know it's not my place to say I want to end the war. To be honest, I don't really care for it. It's annoying and troublesome. I hated the war only because it was degrading to hear only talk about the war and nothing else. My parents were worried about their political image and tried their best to maintain peace in New Ozai. They failed though. The city was taken back by their king of all people."

Naruto and Lyra shook their heads. That sounded right.

The blond rose without pause, cracked his back, and stared out at Zentrai. "Time for some fun." Lyra groaned and retreated to the house with Mai and Ty Lee in tow. Naruto laughed. She was off to get bandages. Not that he blamed her. It had been awhile since the two had trained and Naruto, usually being the one injured, always tested himself against his friend after recovering from whatever wounds he might have gotten to ensure that he was back to full health.

(-)

Rehka looked over the reports that were coming in. It was getting hot. Not literally in terms of actual temperature, but in terms of the war. The Fire Nation was now on a war path. They were hiding something. What that was, she had no idea. What she did know was that while they were on a war path searching for something, most likely Azula, they were becoming blind to the real threat.

"They've almost completed the plans Calamity set in place?"

Kar nodded. He mindlessly picked at one of his teeth with a small knife to remove whatever was stuck between them. It was an annoying thing in her eyes. Both having something stuck in your teeth and that he was doing it right in front of her. But he wasn't here for a full detailed report. He was here for another reason.

"That's good to hear. But I would like to know what you're take is on this plan that Calamity cooked up. Do you really think it'll work?"

Kar sat his knife in his lap, closed his eyes and said, "Most likely. Calamity is a miracle working. No doubt about it. The fact he toyed with all the Nations for so long at the age of seven means he's smarter than the average person. I bet that guy has all the answers to every question we could throw at him locked away in his head. And if he could turn Generals into his personal toys with fake information that was so believable that even we acted on it, that's saying something about his skills. His ability to predict the movements of others just by the history of their battle formations, victories, and losses is something else. So I'd say without a shadow of doubt that this will work."

Rehka laced her fingers together. For better or worse, this was the stupidest thing she had ever agreed to doing.

"Alright. Continue to monitor them as they continue their progression. How long will it take you to get back to Ba Sing Se?"

"I'm half-way there already," he said as he departed.

Rehka watched the door close before losing her focus.

Calamity's plan was a brilliant one, but a suicidal and idiotic one. He was a gambler, no doubt about it. He was risking everyone on the predictability of General Bujing. If the man was as predictable as he was making him out to be, why hadn't anyone else noticed it beforehand? He led countless attacks on the Earth Kingdom and yet each time his formations, his tactics, and even the deployment of his troops had been entirely different. So how could Calamity say that he was predictable?

The answer was pretty obvious: the man never set foot on the battlefield since his promotions. And if that was truly the case then he had no real idea on what happened in the middle of a battle. He wasn't a juggler like Calamity, as he stated so himself. If that was the case, he would divert most of his attention to the battle and not worry about guarding his rear or, in this case, the ground beneath their feet. What General would actually dream of an attack below their very feet? The answer was simple: none.

Rehka skimmed through the reports on her desk without much concern. They annoyed her greatly. She didn't mind not being on the frontlines or even trying to get information like she had done before her capture, but this wasn't something she too keen on doing for the rest of her life.

She stopped and leaned back into the chair, her eyes glued to the ceiling. There was still a lot on her plate that she had to worry about. She hadn't gotten any new reports from Zentrai, which did irk her just a bit, but what she did get from him didn't put her mind at ease.

The Airship fleet was supposedly being built in multiple locations around the world. They had to find them and shut them down before they grew too large. They discovered one by accident and sent Inferno, Blink, Geo, and Gail to destroy the facility. She hadn't gotten word of their victory yet which either meant that the message was slow to get here or they hadn't completed their task yet. In either case it was a bad thing. So long as that facility remained operational they could continue to produce more Airships. And that was something that the Assassins had to bring down.

And while they were doing this, the Order of the White Lotus was getting things set up on their end for their joint operation to take back Ba Sing Se from the Fire Nation. And should that not be enough to turn the tide of war, a secondary plan was put into motion. What Assassins she could send would go to the Fire Nation and wreck things from the inside. It was a suicide mission, but with their attention diverted and their troops spread dangerously thin they could pull it off. Throwing out all mandates for troop safety and exfiltration, they were given the choice to go in or stay behind. So far none opted for this mission but she knew that a few would go.

Rehka rose from her chair, walked towards the bookshelf, tore out of the books, and smiled. She wondered what she would do when the war was over. Would she settle down and try to find a male to be with or would she simply live in the Nameless Village for the rest of her life with her girls and act as an Advisor to Calamity when he took over. She had no doubts about his election. He would surely get the position and become their new leader.

Snapping the book shut, she decided it was time to go see her girls. Two of them were pregnant and she already knew who the father was.

(-)

It was time to avenge the defeat of his son.

Hakoda stepped forward with Sokka's sword in hand. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have dared touch his sons' weapon, but he had no other weapons. And using the weapon of your opponent was distasteful and stood against his honor. Never use the weapon of your opponent unless in an actual battle where your life mattered. This was a simple spar.

He gave the sword a test swing, flipped it over in his hand, and slashed the closes boulder in the courtyard. The rock slide sideway and hit the ground with a satisfying thunk.

"_Am I supposed to be impressed," _Zentrai asked calmly.

Hakoda laughed and tested the sword again and again until he had the basic feel for it. The sword wasn't designed for him. The length was all wrong. It was set only for his son and how tall he might be in the near future. Hakoda knew his son would grow into a fine Warrior, but he doubted that he would be as tall as himself. No. Sokka would probably stand a head shorter than he was.

Hakoda went through a few stances and finally smiled as if he had it down to the letter.

Zentrai sensed his readiness and presented his sword. Against the black blade of Sokka, he had no intention of sacrificing Jet's famous Hook Swords to their mighty sting. Instead he used one of the many blades that were around the house, this one being a lengthy blade without a guard. The blade was chipped from its recent engagement with Sokka's sword and looked brittle enough to break under its own weight. But even with the damage done he still favored it over the black sword.

Hakoda took a deep breath, his sword still pointed at the ground as he spoke. "We should set up some rules for this since I don't feel that safe at the moment fighting you. So how about it?" The mute shrugged but accepted his offer. "First is no Magnetism-Bending. I'm good at what I do, but against some of your skills, I'd rather not test my luck."

"_Fair enough. Any other rules?"_

"This is a straight up sword fight."

The mute shrugged and took his stance. Hakoda followed and was instantly kicked in the shin by the mute who quickly back peddled away from the seething man as he hobbled around one good leg. And while Zentrai found it funny, through Hakoda's minor hisses as he coped with the pain, he found it funny as well that he hadn't thought about that happening.

"Wait," Katara shouted. His cry fell on deaf ears as the two began their battle. Steel clashed in blinding arcs, releasing loud cracks that sounded almost like thunder to those that watched. "Father said it was a straight up sword fight! Zentrai just broke the rules! He's already lost."

Sokka spoke without taking his eyes off the two. "Assassin," he muttered. Katara didn't seem to understand. "Blindside told me the same thing before he fought me in the underground training area. He said it would be a straight up sword fight. No tricks. Just a sword fight. Well, he broke the rules too. But a sword fight consists of a sword style. And if that style requires kicking, punching, elbowing, or even head butting as a form of attack, then it's not illegal.

Katara huffed in annoyance and sat beside Aang as he watched the two fight.

Hakoda swung the sword for Zentrai's neck. The mute ducked under it and was kneed in the face. His head rocked up as Hakoda brought down his fists for a twin hammer blow. The mute jumped to the left, tucked, rolled, and sprang to his feet, stopping only a few inches away from a pillar where he rested at.

The mute growled as he spat a small glob of blood onto the ground and cracked his back with a loud crack.

"One to one," Hakoda declared with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Zentrai thought about that for a second before laughing. _"So what's the score to?"_

Hakoda gave a disgruntled sigh of frustration. Of course the man would egg him on.

Zentrai lunged forward, his sword poised for stabbing. He thrust it forward. Hakoda pared the thrust and lashed out with an elbow blow for the mute. Zentrai slipped under the elbow and tackled into the man. Hakoda raised the sword, spin it around, and then thrust it down on the mute. Zentrai caught it before the man could complete the thrust and threw him over his head.

Hakoda tucked his knees to his chest, hit the ground, and rolled to his feet with a spring. Hakoda placed a foot on the pillar to stop his forward momentum. He spun, his sword slashing outwards in case Zentrai had moved in for an attack. Zentrai had stayed planted in the likely event of such an attack and watched with interest as Hakoda stared at him.

Hakoda took breath, presented his sword, and assumed his stance again. Zentrai wasn't going to win this fight easily. He'd make certain of that.

The two met in a clash of steel that sounded like thunder. Zentrai momentarily lost the advantage when Hakoda's strength outmatched his own and forced him back. Zentrai tipped the fight in his favor by calmly thrusting Hakoda's sword to the side and sidestepping his fist. The mute backed up three paces and stared at the man as he presented his sword once again.

Zentrai consider his options. Hakoda was proving to be a better swordsman than predicted. He wasn't on Blindside's level, but he probably could have given him a bit of a challenge until he got bored with the man. His tactical mind was Zentrai's only real fear. And a sword, like any weapon, in the hands of an expert with a superior tactical mind was a deadly thing.

Hakoda lunged forward, his sword aimed for a low thrust. Zentrai parried the weapon with a quick tap of his own. Hakoda stopped his forward momentum by stabbing the sword into the ground. Before Zentrai had time to think, he lashed out with a high kick to his chest. The mute grimaced. Even though he wore his weapons like armor, the force behind the blow still got through, forcing him back enough so that Hakoda could fully get his senses back and lash out with the sword for a side body blow.

Zentrai thrust his sword up to knock the blade over his head and lash out with a spin kick to the head of the older man. Hakoda ducked back, leaned a bit too far actually, but thankful was quick on his feet and rolled away for a second swing from the mute. He staggered to his feet, presented his sword and slashed at him. Zentrai blocked it with ease and watched the man twist his sword downwards and let Zentrai's own force propel the mute forward. Without hesitation he ran his hand over the flat side of the blade and shoved it down. Zentrai was nearly at a loss for words until he had time to growl out a curse as his sword was yanked from his grip.

His sword gone, he jumped back and watched carefully as Hakoda plucked the sword out of the air before it could strike the earth. He chuckled as he held it with one hand. Two swords fighting against someone without a sword. Under normal circumstances Zentrai would have run. But he had the edge here. Assassins didn't play by the rules. But they didn't break them either. Not all the time at least. Zentrai knew that you could bend the rules without breaking them. And bend them he shall.

Reading Hakoda's thoughts was, surprisingly, not smart. He knew that Hakoda's thoughts were damn near always too complex to read. Hakoda was smart. Too smart for his own good, actually. He was like Calamity in the aspect that he could think up a half a dozen plans in the blink of eye. That was too much information for Zentrai to handle at times and if it wasn't too much for him to handle, trying to follow the plan that he was truly following was remotely impossible. And then there was the fact that not only following his projected plan was next to impossible, but that he continually thought up these radical plans and could change his own plans to meet the standards with his other plans.

Hakoda spun both swords in his hands and consider his options. Zentrai picked up eight different plans in a heartbeat and rushed forward. Zentrai grimaced. Three of his plans consisted of rushing forward and two would follow a downward slash and riser slash from both swords at the same time.

Zentrai drew a knife to each hand from his sleeve and waited for the attack.

Hakoda thrust both swords forward. Zentrai cursed inwardly as he brought hands forward and stopped the two swords cold. It was an amazing feat, but everyone knew what he did. He used his bending to help keep the blades stable against his weapons that had blocked it. Not an easy accomplishment.

Zentrai thrust both swords to the side to create an opening. With the opening made, he rammed a fist into his face. Hakoda's head snapped backwards and he loosened his grip on Zentrai's sword. Zentrai reached to get it but was stopped when Hakoda swung at him. Rather than step aside, Zentrai stepped into the swing and caught the sword between his hands. Hakoda didn't bother gasping in shock. He figured Zentrai could do that. No doubt he had used his bending to his advantage.

The mute smiled as he brought the caught sword up and then over so that it was near his head to the side. _"Nice trick. Now watch mine." _

Zentrai released the sword, kept one hand on the bottom of the sword and hastily smashed his other hand down on the tip of the sword just as the sword passed the halfway mark on his hand. The sword was torn from Hakoda's grasp in one fluid motion that sent it spinning in the air and sticking into the ground directly behind the bender. Hakoda didn't show his surprise. His mind showed it for the mute. He was left momentarily stunned, just long enough for Zentrai to take his sword and plant it firmly at his throat.

"_I win," _he declared with a smile.

Hakoda smiled back and accepted his defeat with stride. After giving his son his sword back and asking if it was a tie, the teens and one adult sat down and decided that it was close enough to dinner time to go into town and find some food to cook. Of course Hakoda had to get dressed properly just like the others and opted to wear a Fire Nation Merchant uniform rather than a military uniform.

(-)

Blink belly crawled to Geo and looked down at the factory below. She had a good view of the place from the cliff face that not only protected the factory from the turbulent waters, but also from view. The factory below didn't rise to even half the height of the dormant volcano it was built in.

From her perch she could easily make out the molten metal that was run along the gauges and into the factory where it was cooled and shipped up to the top floor of the factory. Smoke stacks belched smoke and made it hard for her to see what truly happened behind this point, but what came out to the side of the factory in the open air was the skeletal frame of an Airship that looked more like dead whales than an Airship.

She tapped her friend on the shoulder and returned to Inferno and Gail's side while Geo watched the factory.

"Well," Gail asked, "what does it look like?"

"Trouble," Blink answered. Inferno let loose something between a growl and a sigh. She wasn't sure which it was, but it wasn't good that was for sure. "The place is pretty fortified. They wanted to keep it safe in case of an attack. I'd say they have the right idea in mind when they chose this place in building the damn things."

"Is there a way in?"

Blink shrugged. She hadn't seen one, but she wouldn't put it past them to have a way in that seemed like it wasn't guarded. Chances were high that they had ever inch of that place guarded by only the best of the best for this place. And even if they did get in, getting out was going to be near impossible. It was a suicide mission after all.

Gail blew at her black bangs that dangled in front of her hazel eyes. She hefted the large shield with relative ease as she shifted from foot to foot. The triangle shaped shield was large enough to protect her and another small person behind it.

Blink stared at the shield for a moment before looking back at Geo. He was still perched on the cliffs' edge with the telescope still glued to his face tanned face. His brown hair was clean cut and kept short, but for some reason it still seemed to be longer than what it always seemed.

"Three shifts," Geo said suddenly. "They have three shifts of guards. Each guard shift works for six hours. The next set of guards wake up an hour beforehand and show up to make their runs with the previous shift for ten minutes. I think they're hunkered down tightly just in the likely event that we show up. So how you wanna do this?"

"**Kill everybody," **Inferno said with clear annoyance.

The two siblings grunted in acknowledgment. Of course they wanted to kill the enemy. That was how they saw them. The Fire Nation was the enemy. They weren't human. That was how they were trained to see them. But as sickening as it was, they accepted it just like the others did, some more than others.

"Well," Geo shuttered, "if we aim to do this, we should do it when the sun is at our backs or we strike with a two pronged attack. Heavy hitter storming the front door while the sneaks hit them from the back." His yellow eyes glanced in Inferno's direction. "Of course given enough time, I could come up with an alternative."

Blink knew that he could. Geo was a prodigy in all true aspects of the word. However, his major downfall was that he was very sick. So sick in fact that when he fought he grew weak and began to bleed into his lungs. He, like everyone else, knew his time was short. But he still clung to life. How he did so was beyond her. He had to be clinging to something in order to cling to life the way he did.

"If you can't come up with anything by daybreak," Blink told him, "we attack."

With that, she turned and slinked off with Inferno, Gail following a moment later. Geo stared down at the facility one last time before departing.

(-)

A pounding headache brought Answerer to consciousness. The dull ringing in her head was a good thing in her eyes. It meant she wasn't dead. And the pain helped signify that. If she was in pain, she was alive. That's what it meant to her.

She glanced to her left and then to the right before realizing that she was in her tent at the campsite. Despite having Blindside for a Master, he was very well mannered when it came to privacy. However, that didn't exactly stop him from walking in on her while she slept to wake her up and drag her half-naked form outside for training. The man was brutal. She was certain it wasn't something perverted on his end. But rather, it was his way of showing her cared. He was brutal, effective, and she hated him so much she was considering ways to kill him. But when she thought about it he was doing this not because he wanted to inflict pain on her, but because he was trying to give her the power to fight and win.

Answerer grimaced as she tore her sheets off and tried to rise. That very notion hurt more as she finally managed to rise to her feet and get dressed.

For over two weeks she had taken a beating like no other. The Sakabatō was a brutal weapon that, in the hands of a professional, could kill. However, if he dulled his strength enough it became a brutal cudgel that bore no remorse for its victims. In short, she had taken the worst beating of her life against the thing. She was certain she had cracked ribs, but had no way of knowing if she did or didn't. Her bruises had bruises. Her skin was so tender now that the very motion of putting on her shirt gave her the feeling that it was tearing.

Once she was fully dressed and her sword now firmly in her grasp did she ventured outside. The night had yet to yield to the coming dawn. She was by no means a morning person. But after countless weeks training with Blindside she learned to endure it. She was a morning person out of fear, not by nature.

With a flash she raised her sword and blocked a quick strike from Blindside. He stared down at her with cold eyes as he forced his duel bladed sword to cut through her own sword. Her eyes widened as she felt warm liquid run down her chest and stomach as he sword was sliced in two.

She grimaced as he stepped back and allowed her a chance to check her wound. She didn't bother checking it and charged him. For better or for worse, this was the moment she had been training for: A chance to fight Blindside as an equal.

(-)

There was no warning.

Without a word spoken Naruto charged Zentrai and lashed out with a fist. The mute ducked under it and jumped away. He was quick to put as great a distance as he could between himself and the shirtless blond. While he knew the reason for Naruto's unprecedented attack, he was, albeit, curious as to why he hadn't detected the blond until a split second before his attack.

With some distance between them, which he knew was absolutely pointless, he got a chance to sink into his mind. Naruto was in a rational mind. He was certain of that. But his mind was strangely differently. _No, _he corrected, _it wasn't different. Rather, I'm looking at his mind wrong. _

He grimaced at his mistake. Naruto was still himself. But his mind was slightly different. Enough so that he got back a strange reading from him.

Zentrai gave a quick glance while smiling. A test was the only reason this was happening. They did it all the time and now that he was up he wanted to make sure he was at full strength.

The mute's eyes darkened and before he had a clear chance to fully grasp what was happening Naruto was on him again. He cursed his luck. He hadn't forgotten about Naruto's near lighting speed.

With liquid grace he broke free of Naruto's hold, lashed out with a fist, and waited for the reaction. Naruto's mind raced as he predicted but it was sparked with something more. Naruto was tempting him with thoughts and things he had wanted him to feel, to show, and to make him believe that he was more than what he had always thought he was. Naruto, whether it was known to him or not, was thinking of Ty Lee. That was more than enough of a reason for the mute to grin and take the two body blows that the blond landed.

Staggering back and trying to make some distance, the mute flung all of the weapons from his sleeves in the direction of the blond. Naruto was took quick to be caught by such a lame throw. Zentrai knew that if he wanted to hit him he had to get him from where he couldn't see it. And that meant he had to get behind him with them. Not a hard thing to do. Overwhelm him with weapons and he'll forget about what was behind him so long as it wasn't living. Even in a fight against Zentrai he didn't learn to watch behind himself.

Naruto ran straight into the flying projectiles and darted between them with nimble grace. It seemed like he was dancing with an invisible person as he twisted, flipped, and dove under each of the flying projectiles, and in doing so closed the distance with startling effectiveness. The mute growled and brought his weapons back as Naruto threw a fist for his face. The mute had no time to dodge it and was prepared to take it and stop his own weapons when the blow never came. He halted his attack and marveled again at Naruto's mind and speed.

With a simply thought he threw his weapons out around him and let them dangle in the air like puppets on a string. They hovered without motion and waited for his command to move out. While the weapons floated Zentrai spread his mind out and found Naruto. The blond was being sneaky. A true Assassin. Naruto could do that if he put his mind to it. And it did pain Zentrai to know that what Naruto did was forced rather than something he did with his out thought. In truth, when he killed the "enemy" he wondered what their lives had been like, who would miss them, would someone come to hunt him down for what he did, and if they would remember him when they were reborn.

But Zentrai's ability to read Naruto's mind was what would allow him a chance at victory, even if they had never won a single match against one another in their previous engagements like this.

The mute stood with his arms akimbo and his mind clear. He had to get things clear in his mind fully before he had a chance to fight Naruto. Finding him was easy. He was thinking of what Naruto might do. He knew what he would do. But he had no idea on what he was truly thinking. He was shielding his thoughts from him. While he was normally incapable of doing such a thing without considerable focus, he was able to do it when it really mattered.

Zentrai, his mind utterly clear and focused, found Naruto's mind and linked with him. He grasped the location of the blond and with a thought sent his weapons straight out into the trees at the crest of the beach. He felt the kick of Naruto's will power in his mind as he pushed out while the blond erupted from the trees. The weapons turned and tailed him as if a string were tied to the blond somehow.

Naruto rolled when he hit the sand, sprang to his feet, and dashed for the mute, a plume of dust trailing in his wake. The mute grimaced. Naruto was faster than he expected and was able to get in close enough to deal a quick blow to his sternum. The mute swore in his mind and hastily threw up a shield of metal blades to keep the blond from striking him again. Naruto paid it little mind and punched straight through it. A hole formed on the second blow, but by then it was too late. Zentrai had put some distance between himself and the blond and was able to thrust out dozens of replacement blades.

Naruto grimaced and faded from view with a stomp of the foot, raising a cloud of dust to cover his tracks.

Zentrai gave out an annoyed sigh of frustration. Naruto was proving more difficult that what he would normal like. With the dust cloud blocking his vision, he knew he was at a disadvantage. With Naruto's shielding his thoughts as best he could, he could do little against him. But he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long.

Naruto exploded forward and lashed out with a flying roundhouse kick. Zentrai ducked under, got behind him, and returned Naruto's kick with a backhand. Naruto took the hit, staggered sideways a bit, and then blurred into motion. Naruto darted around the mute. He ran in circles around him before coming to an abrupt halt, kicking up sand in the process, and then darted straight for the mute. Zentrai read his mind, gasped when he got only a glimmer of what the blond was about to do, and hastily put a defense up.

Thin metal blades danced in the air and as the mute brushed Naruto's mind again he was baffled. He was gone again. His mind shielded, Zentrai was left in the dark again.

A pain lanced through his side. Zentrai nearly shouted in pain as Naruto struck him three times before being forced back. The mute growled a curse and brought his hands together. To Naruto it almost looked as if he were using seals for Jutsus. In reality he wasn't. He was using his bending but for what, Naruto didn't know.

The metal blades that had been thrown already flew into the air, resting in place like obedient children before soaring towards their owner. The clanged against his other weapons he already wore and sparked outwards to give him a shell of spikes that would skewer anyone that tried to harm him with physical actions.

The two locked gazes and then exploded into motion.

Zentrai struck first. A quick punch to the sternum followed by a knee to the ribs and an elbow to the side of the head were the opening attacks. Naruto pushed through the pain of the attacks, never backing up, and struck the mute hard with a left hook to the side of the head. Zentrai turned sideways from the force behind it. The mute, while he stumbled back, flung out what weapons he could from his back. They flew upwards, and then came down with a greater force behind them. Naruto easily avoided them, and without looking knew that they had been buried deep in the sands.

Naruto tore through Zentrai's armor with ease, ripping it free for a brief moment from his control as he tossed it aside. He delivered a painful knee strike to the mutes' head then brought his foot up to hit him again before bringing it down upon his head for a three hit strike. The mute dropped to one knee and was kneed in the face for his actions. As he hit the ground, Naruto turned his back to him, brought his leg back up, and kicked him in the face, this time knocking him back and throwing the Magnetism-Bender back fifteen meters.

Naruto was on him before he could stop himself.

Zentrai's eyes were wide open and his weapons rattled on his skin. Naruto was closing in on him. He brushed Naruto's mind and for a fleeting moment, panicked. Naruto picked up on his panic and hastily figured out what the man was about to do. An explosion of power erupted from the two. Zentrai threw all of his weapons out. His shirt and pants exploded and, to the eyes of those watching, looked like a heavy rain shower. The weapons rattled and twitched in the air, some dipped towards the ground and rising back up before touching. Others, closer to Zentrai, hovered perfectly still without even a flutter of movement.

Naruto's power erupted at the same time. A crimson flurry of light that bounced around the weapons in a dazzling display of red light beams nearly blinded the spectators. The ground quaked momentarily as Naruto hit the ground and stared at his comrade. His eyes burned brightly as dark clouds rippled into existence over his head. Lightning crackled in the sky as Naruto's energy battled with some inner demon before the red energy shot skyward.

To Ty Lee, it was something more than a pillar of light. It was a creature with a dog-like body, pointy ears, and nine-tails waving in some imaginary wind. With a twitch of its ears its head shot upwards and howled. The blast of dry wind ripped through the others that watched-now huddled close to each other-were nearly knocked over from the sudden uproar of wind. For Ty Lee it was just another way of looking at the creature that had plagued her thoughts for months. But, as if the creature had caught some new threat to its former host, it looked down and in the direction of the mute.

Ty Lee gave a chance glance to Zentrai and gasped in true terror to what she saw. His aura, while normal in color for his mindset even during battle, but what she saw above him defied her understanding of auras. As if guided by the hand of evil, a spectral creature floated out of him with red eyes. It was barely taller than the mute, but while it was human in form, it was not human in the aspect of the six arms it had, each armed with a different size and style of blade. But through the haze of the blazing red aura from Naruto, and the overwhelming desire of death wavering from the strange creature, a strange set of markings blazed forth from the most elegant of its blades. Written along the side of the white sword, a series of dashes, lines, curves, and markings that looked more like pictures of animals and monuments, stood out emitting a sickly yellow light.

Ty Lee stared at the weapon and stepped back as it swung its weapons once, cleaving the air with a single swing that tore through the ragging wind of the red beast to calm the air.

With fiery gazes they charged and in a flash of light and a clash of flesh and steel that sounded more like thunder, the fight was over. Both teens held each other in a checkmate fashion, Naruto hold Zentrai by his throat with his hand pulled back and flat, ready to strike a killing blow on his friend, while Zentrai's blades were posed at the throat of the blond, ready for the kill.

"Draw," Naruto muttered as he released his friend. His aura vanished and the specter faded away like dust in the wind. Zentrai's vanished as he dropped his weapons, but unlike Naruto's it seemed to seep back into his shadow. Naruto, annoyed by the draw, kicked one of the weapons and sent it spiraling into the air before landing at the feet of Aang. "I won." He declared finally.

Zentrai laughed. _"Bullshit," _he shot back with a smile. _"As I recall, we always went by whoever used their power first as the loser. You used your power first. Therefore, I win."_

Zuko snorted. "I had no idea you were into men as well, Zentrai. I had always heard you went for girls only."

"_Wow, this coming from the very same guy that was chasing after a teenager for a year. You have no room to talk, queer."_

Zuko exploded into action and hastily closed the distance. The mute laughed and backed up in a lazy fashion and dodged Zuko's wild swings without grace.

Ty Lee approached with all haste, her eyes narrowed on the mute while trying to keep a straight face. "Naruto clearly won the fight." She motioned up down Zentrai's own body after he had captured the former Prince. "You're not exactly in the best of shape. And besides, you used your power first. I saw it with my own eyes."

The blond gave her a happy glance while the mute brushed her thoughts. It only took a second, and in that second he was left smiling at not only her devotion and love for the Assassin, but also another, slightly ironic, thing she had recently done to him. _"Her vote doesn't count," _he said with a wave of his hand. _"But I'm a bit curious on as to why she showed you her breasts. Care to explain that? Or are you two already fucking." _

Ty Lee blushed from the very mention of such an event while Naruto gave his friend a flat look. A mock fight ensued between the four as they argued over what being polite was and taking complete advantage of a situation like that was about.

Zentrai was at a disadvantage for a number of minutes as he dodged with childlike grace through a series of punches, kicks, and minor Firebending. It was until Zentrai's brushed Naruto's mind and learned that someone was coming. Without missing a beat he sprang into action, pinned Zuko and Ty Lee in a dome of metal blades while pinning Naruto to the ground.

"_Enough," _his voice boomed with godlike authority. _"I'm going to release you all, but this ends now. It was all fun and games until one of us gets caught." _

Katara stormed off at that point. Zentrai read her mind as she left and sighed inwardly. She wasn't aware of the precautions that Naruto had taken prior to starting their sparing session. And while he had been focused on the fight, he hadn't been completely focused on it entirely. He had been making sure that no one got in range to see them. Without knowing these precautions she had presumed the worst and stormed off with her father trailing behind her.

Zentrai released the others, placed his weapons back on his body, and began moving for the safety of the house. The others followed with the exception of Aang who stayed behind for a moment before being ordered to follow. "What about Katara," he asked.

"_Her father may clear things up for here in a way we can't," _Zentrai sent to him. Aang was disgruntled, but decided it wasn't his place to ask questions like that. _"Zuko, start a fire somewhere inside. We'll sit around and talk for a while. I'm sure that like me you'd all like to get a few things off your chest." _His eyes glued to Ty Lee's breasts. She turned away, her hands covering the things he looked at, and cried mentally over being eye candy for the perverted mute.

(-)

"Katara, wait."

She continued to walk without a moment's pause. Hakoda chased after her, but kept a good distance. Waterbending or not, an angry woman was something to be feared. His wife had a many times before got him when he got to close during her angry moments. And he had no intentions of being used for Katara's anger management sessions.

"Katara, as your father, I order you to stop."

She paused mid-step, then continued as if the threat meant nothing. Hakoda sighed and ran up behind her, grabbed her shoulder, and spun her around. Her eyes were red from tears and her face showed her inner anger. He couldn't blame her. He had heard about all the things that she had gone through because of them. The scar on her throat was proof of their actions against her passionate desire to save lives and never stay in the shadows like they did. What was he supposed to expect anyways? Three Elite Assassins, probably the best this world had ever seen, were forced to work with a bunch of kids that thought about protecting the world and saving everyone. A child's view of the world.

She fought for a moment to escape and then stopped. Her father was strong. She had always known that. He was stronger than her in more ways than one. But she fought to get loose for a couple of minutes before giving up entirely. She couldn't outmatch him strength or wits. She was trapped.

"Katara, listen to me. I know what they've done to you. I know what they've done around you. I know that they've left villages to die that you wanted to save. But you-"

"How come they do that?"

Hakoda bit back the urge to hit her. If she was a Warrior, not a civilian forced into a fighting, he might have disciplined her. But she was his daughter and a civilian with Waterbending abilities that had been thrust into fighting. He couldn't look the other way, but he couldn't strike her for her innocence. That was one thing he loved and hated about her.

"How come they scold me for using my bending in the eye of the public where soldiers might see me, but they can do it right now? Sure there was no one around, but we don't know that. Someone could have been watching."

"You're right, Katara. Someone could have been watching us. But don't you think they were making sure of that before the fight began?" Her mouth opened in retort but he waved her off. "I don't know how Naruto's power works, but what I do understand is that his ability to make copies of himself allows him to destroy them at will and take their memories. So don't you think that he might have had a few of those in the area to make sure that no one could see them fighting?"

The young Waterbender hissed a curse.

"And what about Zentrai? His ability to read minds would also allow him to see out such a threat? So if you add all that up, I'd say they knew what they were doing and that they were safe enough to fight without being seen. And even if they did get seen, don't you think they'd find out and make us leave or protect us from harm?"

"They said they only need the Avatar. They're only here to protect Aang. And if you knew about the things that they did, like leaving those innocent villagers to the mercy of the Fire Nation that lived on the river, why don't you go shout at them?"

"Katara, I know you are no Warrior. You are a civilian with Waterbending abilities that was forced into fighting. You didn't want to fight. Maybe you want to fight now. But back then you didn't want to fight. And because of that, you never got training on how to deal with these situations."

"What training? Are you saying that what they've done is perfectly normal? That we should just the Fire Nation destroy everything and never give a damn about them? They've killed so many people. They destroyed that village in the river because we helped them. Because _they _destroyed their factory. How can you justify their actions when they never stop to take care of the rest of the problem that would ensue?"

Hakoda released his hold and stepped back. Better for some distance at this point. "Katara, I have a question for you. What would have happened if you said and defeated those that came that time? Do you think they would simply leave them alone at that point? Did you really think that the Fire Nation would just leave them alone? They wouldn't. They want to control the entire world."

"So I would have stayed."

Hakoda shook his head. "Being a martyr is all well said and good, but it does nothing for you in the end. You can't save everyone, Katara."

"I can try."

"Then you'd die failing. The world you believe in isn't just black and white, Katara. If that were the case, that would mean that all people of the Fire Nation are evil and that we are good. That is what you're saying. That is what you firmly believe in if you see the world as black and white. Zuko isn't evil. I've seen other Fire Nation people fight the good fighting against their own people. So don't think for a moment that this world is black and white, Katara. Because it isn't."

Her father began to leave, stopping only to say; "Katara, if you had to save the lives Earth Kingdom by letting a Fire Nation village destroyed by Earth Kingdom troops, would you do it?"

Hakoda left her with her thoughts, not bothering to look back.

(-)

Calamity sat patiently in his chair like a child in timeout. He wasn't in trouble. He was thinking of the perfect battle strategy for the battle to come. It all road on him it felt like. He felt the weight of the world, a corrupted world by war, hunger, hatred, and deceit riding on his shoulders. He wanted nothing more than to watch the world burn around his feet and start anew.

The line of the Avatar should be the first thing to go. People hide behind the power of the Avatar, using it for their own ends. People lie. People die. People hate. And they turn on one another. That was the world they were fighting to protect. It sickened him.

"So why do people exist at all?" He rubbed his temples and removed his mask. The door cracked open and Den stared at him. "Have you made all the preparations for what is coming?"

"Yes," he answered tightly. Calamity nodded his thanks. "What are you after, Calamity? Why would someone like you want to fight at all? You hate this very world we're trying to save. Why bother fighting at all?"

"Why are you fighting to protect a world that has fallen so far that it cannot be saved any longer? Why would you want to save this world?"

"I still have hope in the power of the Avatar. That is why I want to save this world. His power can save the world."

The masked man gave a loud sigh of frustration. "And that is the reason this world is so pathetic in my eyes. When we have no power we turn to the people who do have it. We turn to the Avatar. In a time long before the creation of the Avatar, we didn't rely on the power of others. We relied only on our own powers. The military was the backing force for every Nation. They stood shoulder to shoulder fighting, hating, and killing one another. Now, when the threat of war breaks out we turn to the Avatar in the hope that he can save us. That thinking is wrong and will be our downfall. It was our downfall."

Den stood his ground. "And that's why you want this world to fall to the ground. Is that it?"

Calamity considered removing his mask but stopped his hand short. "I hate humanity more than I hate this world. Do you know why?" Den shook his head. He clearly didn't want to listen, but he knew he had to listen. "I hate humanity for what we represent. We are a warring race that destroys anything we don't like or someone says is evil. We crave war because we want to destroy each other. No matter how good natured we are; we desire blood on our faces. The bodies of others ripped open and torn asunder right before our eyes…"

(-)

Inferno stood over the burned remains of a dozen Fire Nation troops and slave workers. He had made out the slaves as a combination of Earth Kingdom citizens and soldiers and Fire Nation citizens that must have spoken out against the war.

Their broken bodies were crushed beneath his feet and other metal structures. Some were slain by his blade. Others were burned to a crisp by his Firebending. No matter what the mission had been completed. They had destroyed the Factory and everyone in it just as they had been ordered to.

"_No survivors," _Rehka said to them.

So they left no survivors.

(-)

"…we struggle against all odds in the hope that the righteous will prevail over the wicked. That being on the side of good will enable you to triumph without fail. We believe that the light of the Spirits shines down upon those that have been forsaken by their Nation or thrown against the wall, and that is why we stand up to fight. We fight, believing that we have the strength to stand up against them even if we have no hope of winning…"

(-)

Answerer spat up blood, dropped to one knee, and held her bleeding body with one hand, her other hand grasping the remains of her cut up sword. Blindside walked calmly towards her, his double-bladed sword dangling just a mere centimeter off the ground. It was so low she thought it was touching.

She got to her shaky feet, wobbled for a moment, and then charged him.

He passed by her.

She screamed silently as her blood soared into the air.

Answerer hit the ground unmoving. Her blood pooled around her.

With a flick of the wrist, her blood was thrown from his blade and the Rank Five Assassin sheathed his blade.

(-)

"…that is why I hate humanity. We are weak. We're not like how we used to be before the time of the Avatar."

"You make that sound as if you were there personally," Den commented offhandedly. Calamity smiled behind his mask. There were times he felt like he was there and yet not there during these times. "But everything is set with Azula. All we need now is to wait a few days before the comet arrives and we're all set. But are you certain that this is a good idea. What if we didn't break her the way we thought we did?"

Calamity rose to his feet. "Good thought," he said. He walked past him. Den followed hastily behind the man. They reached Azula's cell, he tore it open without a second thought, stared at her from behind his mask, and then kicked Azula down to the ground. "Den, get your men."

Azula began to cry.

Calamity smiled. Everything was falling into place. With one more rape they would finally have total confirmation that Azula was theirs to command and that she was without a shadow of a doubt broken.


	30. Chapter 30

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 30

Naruto's eyes slowly opened and his vision was blinded by a sea of white. He stared intently into it for a matter of minutes before finally registering what it was. With a slow turn of his head, the white vision cleared just enough for him to make out the form of a petit body nestled against his body. Small, nimble looking, and very cute: it was a naked Ty Lee. She seemed to not know that he was awake or that she was even in his room.

Naruto carefully detangled himself from her petit arms that helped onto his and carefully removed himself from the bed. Once out, he checked to make sure his pants were at least on. They were.

"_Doesn't mean you didn't have sex with her," _Zentrai's mental voice stated.

Naruto wasn't sure if that really was him or some past voice of his friend speaking to him over the last time this had happened. It was a prank then. Naruto didn't know what to make of it this time though. Zentrai wouldn't prank him this badly in such a dire time that they faced.

Naruto tried to banish the thoughts of what might have happened but instead found himself focusing on it and Ty Lee as she began to wiggle around on the bed. She was looking for something, or rather, him. She rolled over so that she was flat on her back, her left foot scratching furiously at her right ankle, and allowing Naruto a good look at her.

Ty Lee was tiny. She was probably no taller than Blink. She had a small body and a cute face. Even with white hair that clung to her face, she looked rather remarkable. No scars. No bruises. She was the real memory of a doll from when he lived in his village from so long ago and the girls ran around them. And while Ty Lee wasn't a doll in any way, he found it odd that the one person she reminded him of was the one person he had never really ever gotten to know that well.

Ty Lee suddenly went rigid. She was awake. She knew something was wrong when the covers were gone and the bed obviously felt different. She tucked into a ball in an attempt to make herself smaller. It somehow worked. Naruto blinked once as she suddenly went from an average teenager in height to a small ball. She was flexible.

"Naruto," she whispered cautiously. The blond gave an annoyed sigh. She heard him and squeaked once. One hand went down between her legs and the blond had to look away. "Did we…?"

"I have no idea," he answered. She seemed to not know either. "I'm going to go outside so you can get dressed." He grabbed a shirt, walked out, and shut the door.

The blond blinked his eyes twice, once to remove the image of Ty Lee from his mind, and the second because in the hallway things were a lot brighter for some reason. He had forgotten that his room was especially dark because it was at the back of the house where it would brighter towards the end of a day.

He threw his shirt on as he moved down the hallway towards Zentrai's room. He wondered about why Zentrai would go this far to get them together. Naruto had some feelings for the girl. He wouldn't deny that. Ty Lee was nice, cute looking, and she reminded him of who he once was. No matter how much he hid it, he could never truly get away from what he once was or what he felt when he killed. It hurt him.

He found Zentrai ten minutes later after he had started searching. He, of course, had not been in his room. Naruto found the mute in the kitchen cooking. Normally Zentrai was a terrible cook. But what he could cook was eggs. No explanation could be given. Even Master Gen Fu had never been able to understand it either. Zentrai had told him it was like Naruto's mindless rage. He didn't know why he knew how to cook only eggs, but it just came natural to him.

The blond stepped past a dozen more rooms as he thought about his last mindless rage.

Naruto had no idea on how it worked or what truly triggered. He never blacked out and lost it. He had always said he was calm and just felt more at home for some reason, which, after a few arguments, was agreed that it was some sort of after effect from the Kyuubi that had once resided within him. Naruto wouldn't put it past the fur ball either.

The mute was halfway done with his cooking when he glanced up and stared at the blond Assassin. _"What?"_

"Did you do it?"

Zentrai paused and read his mind with caution. He continued to flip the eggs until he got to what Naruto was actually talking about. His mind went blank and he tried not to laugh. Of course that was a hard thing for him and it didn't make it any better considering that when he saw her naked through Naruto's eyes, it was pretty clear that something had happened.

"_I had nothing to do with it." _

Naruto rolled his eyes. Without pause he reached over and grabbed the apple that sat next to the fireplace and bit into it. Zentrai was willing to part with the apple over this kind of an issue. A fight over an apple would be pretty stupid since Naruto had a bigger reason to start a fight at the moment.

Naruto offered a sharp glance at his friend before mentally cringing. His thoughts had turned to what Ty Lee looked as she was naked and his thoughts on the matter. She was beautiful to him then and still was. Naruto had seen everything she had to offer, and now Zentrai knew what she looked like as well.

"_She needs to shave," _the mute declared. Naruto waved the comment off and the mute sighed. _"I didn't do that, Naruto. I'll read everyone's mind and try to figure out who did it. But I'm not making any promises on finding anything."_

Naruto growled as he decided to leave his friend to this. He made his way back to his room and without a thought pushed his door open. Ty Lee was standing with only her pants on. She bent over and let her breasts dangle in front on him for a few seconds before she became aware of his presence. When she noticed him she was hastily stood up, covered her breasts, and jumped over the bed for cover. Naruto smiled at her innocent nature. He couldn't blame her for that.

"I'm not going to do anything to you, Ty Lee. I just came in here to see if you knew how you got in my room." Her head stuck up over the side of the bed and shook it violently. Naruto sighed. "Well, Zentrai's going to look into it. If this was a prank, he's not going to admit to it. I doubt it was him anyways. He'd have had a certain gleam in his eyes that I would have easily noticed if he was guilty."

She nodded hastily, almost as if she was certain that it was Zentrai.

"Anyways, you don't have to worry about me jumping you, Ty Lee. You should know that already. If that was the case, I would have already done that. So relax will you?" Naruto reached over and started grabbing his gear. Ty Lee rose out from the cover of the bed and watched him slip his belt on and then line it with throwing knives. "So you don't know how you get in my bed, right?"

"Right," she stammered. Naruto looked at her in the reflection of the mirror. She was flushed with embarrassment. "Um… we didn't… you know…?"

Naruto glanced at the bed. Where he had been sleeping was still covered in specks of blood from his wounds when he had been shot by the arrows. Of course that meant nothing unless Ty Lee was a virgin.

Naruto gave her a quick glance before asking; "Are you a virgin?"

"Does it matter?" Naruto looked at the blood on the bed. Her eyes followed and she hastily shook her head. "I'm a virgin."

Naruto nodded to that as he slipped the rest of his shirt on. With his hood down, he didn't look much like an Assassin to her for some reason. She didn't know why. Stripped of his main weapons, the clawed gloves he wore, and with patches of blond hair mixing in with the black hair he had, he didn't look anything like an Assassin.

_Has to be those strange marks on his cheeks, _she told herself.

Ty Lee finished getting dressed in silence and waited for Naruto to do something. He retrieved the sheets and walked out with him. Ty Lee followed like a love struck puppy and helped him start cleaning the dirty sheets. It didn't take them long to get the blood stains out. They hadn't been that big and Zuko didn't seem to care either. And after a few minutes of washing they had the stains out and the sheets on the clothesline.

After getting the sheets up they went back inside, straightened up the room together by picking up bandages and other clothes that lay around. In short ordered they were washed and hung out to dry. When they finished getting everything settled they returned to the kitchen. Zentrai had already moved outside and had been kind of enough to leave them a note stating where he was. Naruto, of course, wasn't amused. He could have just mentally told them where he was.

They moved outside, found the others, and sat down around them as they all ate. Zentrai gave the two a quick glance before deciding it was time to ask the big question.

"_So who put Ty Lee, naked, in Naruto's bed last night?"_

Food was spat, some coughed, and those that did neither blinked stupidly with food dangling from their mouth. Ty Lee tried to hide behind Naruto, but the blond walked over to his friend, grabbed some of the food, and began eating while walking around. Of course when Ty Lee tried to follow she was grabbed up by Mai and dragged off. Zentrai brushed both of their minds and realized that they weren't the ones. He scanned the others and found that none of them had done it. That startled him and then began to worry as he looked at his fellow Assassin.

"What's the verdict," Naruto asked carefully.

Zentrai's flashed him a smile and chuckled.

The blond lurched towards him, jumping straight forward, and tackling his friend to the ground. A small scuffle ensued before Lyra got annoyed, grabbed Naruto from the panicking mute, and threw him backwards. Naruto landed flat on his back, growled, rose up, and glared daggers at his friend.

"_IT WASN'T ME!" _Zentrai raised his hand and scooted back with heavy breathing. _"Listen, Naruto, it wasn't me. If it was me, you know I would have done something else aside from leave her naked. I would have taken all your clothes off as well and put her on top of you. You know that. You know that to be true!" _

Naruto shook his head while pacing back and forth. He knew that was true. If Zentrai had done it he would have actually done something like that. He would have put Ty Lee on top of him or made it seem like they had really done the deed. But since that hadn't been the case he knew that Zentrai didn't do it. That didn't mean he was happy with what had happened this morning.

Naruto stopped pacing and growled angrily as he picked up his food and resumed eating.

"What happened this morning," Aang asked between his bites of lettuce.

"I woke up to Ty Lee in my bed naked this morning."

Aang blushed and Zentrai laughed as the idea of a naked Katara flashed in Aang's mind.

"How is that a bad thing?" Hakoda asked. His eyes narrowed and a sly smile formed on his lips. "I'm guessing something like this happened before and Zentrai was somehow involved?"

The three Assassins stared at each other for a moment, a secret meeting happening in a split second, and then sighed. Zentrai chuckled inwardly. Naruto rubbed his left side at the third and fourth rib. Lyra snorted and anger flashed across he features.

"It was a long time ago," Lyra said quietly. "It was back when I had both arms and we were still, what you might call, immature. Zentrai, after getting pranked by Naruto two days prior to this, had decided to actually have a moment where Naruto got in bed with me. I sleep naked all the time when in a home. We were with Master Gen Fu and staying at his home at the time. Short story for this is that Naruto woke up, screamed because he was too immature, woke me up, and I kicked him out of the house. He fell two stories and didn't speak to me for three months. In fact, I didn't see him for the first month and a half until he accidently ran into me."

Zuko pushed around his eggs with one finger and considered what that all meant. It just meant that it was a long time ago. Lyra had last her arm about a year or two ago if his memory on the matter served him well. It would have been during the time that Naruto and Zentrai had started taking missions for the Fire Nation. He couldn't remember if that had been their first mission or not, but he supposed it really didn't matter.

"Well," Zuko began. "We need to continue your training, Aang. Katara, get some drinks ready, please. Might as well get some bandages for the unexpected accident."

Naruto shot Zentrai a dirty look before walking off. "See to his training, Zentrai. I've got something's to take care of." He patted his friend on the shoulder and walked off without looking back.

The mute gave a withering sigh of frustration. Naruto had challenged his command, though he had done so with good reasons. He couldn't let Naruto have his way, but at the same time he had every right to be angry with him and order him around. It was what he hated most. Ordering people around when it was a life or death situation was one thing. Ordering them around when he had, even if he hadn't, done wrong was not something he enjoyed. He hadn't done this and Naruto knew that. But for the life of him he couldn't let it go that easily.

He grumbled a curse as Aang and Zuko headed off to train. The others decided to follow while Katara went and grabbed their drinks. She clearly didn't like the idea but when he brushed her mind he was startled to know that while she did still hold resentment to Zuko she was willing to do as she was told because this was for the greater good.

The mute groaned as the others followed to watch, leaving him out of the loop. That was okay with him. He was leaving them out of the loop on a few things too. But that was on a need to know basses. It wasn't life threatening at the moment so he had no reason to tell them anything.

(-)

Naruto threw open his door, grabbed his book, and began reading. He was angry. He wanted to know who had put Ty Lee in his bed. He wasn't complaining about the fact that she had somehow gotten in his bed. He wouldn't even complain about seeing her body. She was beautiful and Naruto knew that she knew it, but didn't flaunt it like most girls would. Maybe she did and he just wasn't around to see it. But the fact was that she hadn't done it to him. She was shy. Every time he so much as looked at her she would blush and turn away as he was too good for her to look at.

He got through two pages before her naked body popped up in his head. He dismissed it and continued reading. After two paragraphs, one telling the story about "Naruto's" first accidental peep at his lifelong crush, and the second being about how "Naruto" had envisioned her naked form on top him, he sighed and threw the book to the table. It landed with a loud thwack and he cringing inwardly. No matter what, Jiraiya had been a pervert. He had been a good teacher that believed in a lot of good things. He had done a lot of bad things too.

Naruto had learned through the book that there was no real good or evil. It was how everyone looked at your actions. Naruto knew that what some people did was for the better interests of themselves, but then there were those few moments where everything was done for the sake of another.

In the story, "Naruto" had helped his friend come over her grief over the loss of a baby brother. He did stupid things to make it up to her in the hopes that she would feel better. When missions came on he took charge, moved forward, and did everything she was supposed to do. And when she was about to be swept away by alcohol and bad men, he ran in to save her, killing the bad men and getting her to stop drinking, if only for a little while. She never thanked him for what he did. At least not in the book anyways.

But then "Naruto" did bad things that hurt others badly. He twisted people. Used them even. He turned good men into evil people because they had gotten themselves in too deep with a mob or debt and needed a way out. He gave them a way out by turning them into his pawns, his agents, his spies. He used men that had done only one bad deed and turned them into his spies to spy on their very Nation that they swore to protect. He forced them into it by paying off what they owed or getting them out of the tricky situation that they had gotten themselves stuck in. That was an evil thing.

Naruto took a deep breath and considered that. That wasn't actually evil. What he did was out of the safety and wellbeing of his Nation. Everything he did was for the sake of his village.

Like that, Naruto was willing to bet that whatever Zentrai was doing or had done concerning Ty Lee had been in Naruto's best interest. They didn't always get along, but they were there for one another. They stood by each other in tough times and in hard times. Naruto had only betrayed him once in his life that he knew of for sure, and a second time because his friend deserved it. But Naruto could understand why he would, supposing he did, put Ty Lee in his bed. He wanted him to be happy. There were probably other reasons as well, but nothing too life threatening or annoying.

So while it was wrong of him to do, Naruto knew that deep down Zentrai had probably done it just because he wanted Naruto to have someone that he could honestly love. Zentrai had lost the one woman he truly loved with all his heart so long ago that it pained him greatly. He found pleasure in other women. He didn't want Naruto to go through that.

Naruto got off his bed, retrieved his book, and collapsed back onto the bed. His eyes scanned the cover for a long time before he finally began to read it. He got past the chapter about "Naruto" seeing the woman he so happily loved and would give his life for naked and managed to get to the next chapter where "Naruto" took a mission of great importance for their village. He fought valiantly as he lead his team through the various jungles of Kaminari no Kuni and dispatched their target with ease before being redirected to Amegakure no Sato to battle the current leader of Amegakure no Sato.

The blond snapped the book closed. The chapter ended with their enemy arrived with an ominous glare as "Naruto's" teammate barely managed to get off, "It's…" before the chapter ended. Naruto had never truly taken Jiraiya for a great author, but he did manage keep the suspense up even if the story was nothing more than an autobiography of his late teacher, whatever that word meant.

Setting the book down, Naruto paused and then closed his eyes as if he'd been slapped. His mind drifted back to his friends. A tear slid down in his cheek and he touched it before it feel. In all his time here he had never really gotten a clear chance to look back on his life. He never got a chance to truly think about what he had lost. When he was pulled into the war he never got a chance to actually sit down and reflect. Very seldom did it happen. And now that he had a chance to reflect, it came him pause to think about other things.

His friends, back from where he came from, were probably all dead, dying, or were trying to figure out what had happened to him. He didn't know either. But he missed them. He missed them more than he would ever be willing to truly admit or show. Pride didn't stop him. He never cared about that. He had no pride. He used to prank people for attention rather than earn it in a normal fashion. The only thing that stopped him from looking back was the war. He never got the chance to. And now that he got that chance the memories of his old life began to eat away at the walls he had erected around his heart to keep his weakness at bay.

He could barely remember Hinata's shy smile as she pressed her fingers together. He never really had known why she did that 'till she confessed to loving him. He winced slightly. He didn't love her. He had never known. Blinded by his own love for Sakura, the one girl he had always had eyes for. She beat him up constantly. He rubbed his arm as if she had just struck him and wished she could be here to do that. Surely he needed that from time to time.

Tsunade's tender love and care for him when he had come back after failing to retrieve Sasuke still tore at him. He remembered her lecture she gave him, stating that Sasuke was a threat, but something that they wanted back and that _they _would do everything in _their _power to get him back. In the end, it didn't matter. Naruto couldn't remember if he killed him or not, but he certainly hoped he didn't. Not because he hoped his friend was alive to change his ways and return to the village, but because that would be the second promise he broke. He had stupidly made the promise to kill him and then himself once it was said and done. How stupid was that?

Naruto delved deeper into his memories of his old life, mentally putting pictures together of his friends like Kiba and Shino. Shino wasn't that hard. His face was hidden and a blurry image of his friend came to life. He couldn't remember a single thing his friend said to him, but it didn't matter. The memory-or lack of a memory-of what he had looked like was more than enough, along with Kiba and his dog… whatever the white thing had been called. He knew it started with an "A."

Ino came to mind as well, but slowly. He remembered her clinging to Sasuke, then when he saw her again after he had left to train with Jiraiya. That wasn't a fond memory for him. If memory served him correctly, which it probably didn't, that was the same time that he met Sai for the first time. Sai and Ino were a pair, but a strange one. Ino was loud and in your face, flaunting her good looks. Sai was quiet, reserved, and very calm when he spoke, though openly curious most of the time. Naruto wondered if Ino would have gotten with him or Shikamaru or Kiba. He chose to believe it was Shino for some reason.

Tenten came to mind as well, but almost after he had thought about Lee and Gai and what torture they had probably put Neji through for most of his life. He didn't have really any memories of Tenten say for the time she had fought the blond haired girl from Suna. He forgot her name but never forgot the name of her brother Gaara. Temari! He smiled. That was her name. Temari.

The blond was lost so deep in his thoughts that when Ty Lee knocked on the door he nearly hurled a throwing knife at them that sat on the desk. He stilled his hand fast enough so he didn't grab it or reach for it. But the reaction he had to _their _arrival was more than shown.

Mai coughed and shoved Ty Lee forward. "Did you put her in your bed," Mai asked him calmly.

Naruto snorted and looked her over with one eye. "No," he said. His eyes were quickly drawn to Ty Lee. She held her slender arms under her busty-

Naruto looked away and winced as the mental image of her naked in his bed sprang forward to his mind. A naked girl was hard to get out of your head. And if they were beautiful it was ten times worse. Ty Lee was beautiful and probably knew it but never cared. She came to the Assassins seeking him. That had to mean something.

Mai snorted. "I find that hard to believe." The two walked in, though Mai had to gently nudge Ty Lee into the room to get her going. "So nothing happened last night?"

"Not that I'm aware of." The blond faced them again. He kept his eyes on Mai. "Did you put her in my bed?"

"No. Not that I don't like you, which I actually sort of do since you're the more reasonable one of the three, but I don't want to let Ty Lee be hurt. I'm sure you understand why I'd say that."

Naruto nodded slowly. He was thinking on other things at the moment. He was curious on why Ty Lee even came after him. Was he that much of a mystery to her that she was willing to sacrifice everything about her existence just for a stupid answer that she could or couldn't understand.

Ty Lee shifted from foot to foot as she stared at his aura. It was constantly changing. He became sad, then angry, then worried, and then happy so fast that she was certain she skipped over other auras he showed. And while she was willing to bet that a few of them were ones she had no knowledge of at the moment. She was certain that he was doing something he never really did at the moment. There was just something about his eyes that made her believe that. Guilt perhaps for seeing her naked. He was more honorable than what she truly thought if that was the case.

"The others are going to the beach to train and probably take a break soon for a beach party," Mai informed him. "I'm going to go get dressed for it since Zuko was kind enough to let me borrow his mothers' old swimsuit. It actually fits." Ty Lee went rigid and before anyone could react, Mai was out the door, slamming it shut as she did. Ty Lee tested it and found that it was near impossible to open. Locked. "Stay with him," Mai urged from behind the door.

Ty Lee, now trapped with her crush, began to panic. What was she going to do now? If Naruto wanted to change clothes she'd have to leave or be at the mercy of seeing him naked. She knew her weakness. She wouldn't be able to turn away like she did last time when he got out of bed. And even as the thoughts came to her mind faster than she could block them, she was instantly drawn to his form.

Naruto sat on the bed, eyes closed, and his aura blank. She didn't know what he was feeling. A blank aura just meant that he wasn't feeling anything. He was neither empty nor full. He was just a blank slate.

"Do you intend to go to the beach?" he asked.

She shook her head.

Naruto sighed. "Do you have something to wear for the beach?"

Ty Lee sighed and slowly shook her head. The more he mentioned it the more she really wanted to go.

Naruto sighed and got up from his bed with a slow and leisurely pace. He hadn't been to the beach to have fun since-

Naruto slowly brought a hand to his temple while sitting back down. He smiled briskly at the memory of when he had last gone to the beach for some fun had been with Jiraiya before they had returned home. It had been Jiraiya's idea to relax on the beach and rest before heading home. What that translated into was hot girls wearing next to nothing, playing on the beach, being soaked by the water with their most hair clinging to their breasts. That had been the underlining goal that Jiraiya had and achieved. Jiraiya had gotten more research done in that day alone than he had during the whole trip. Though Naruto had also learned a few things from it too.

The thought of Ty Lee in a bathing suit, like the ones he had seen, wasn't such a bad idea to him. And his aura began to show it as he thought more and more on it.

"You're turning red," Ty Lee said with a hint of annoyance. Naruto looked at her and her face was twisted into a look of disgust. Did she actually know what he was thinking about? "I have a few ideas on what you're thinking about," she said as if she had read his mind.

Naruto laughed and suddenly felt very alone. He remembered Jiraiya's death and the pain it caused him. He had put it behind him for so long that now when he thought back on it he felt ashamed to have forgotten what his sensei had actually done for him and the noble sacrifice he made just so that they could beat Pein. That seemed so wrong back then but now it wasn't as bad.

A soft hand touched his and his eyes had blurred. He blinked them clear and realized he was crying again. He didn't know when it started either. He tried to pull away from the young acrobat, but her grip was stronger than his at the moment. Damn his weakness again. He had been warned to never look back when in war. Never look back. Keep moving forward. Never give moment to pause or the enemy might actually get you with your pants down. He had never truly thought about the meaning behind those words until now.

"You hurt inside, don't you?" Naruto didn't answer. "Why did you choose to fight knowing that it would make you suffer so?"

The former Jinchuuriki thought about that for a moment. Why had he chosen to fight? It hadn't been just because of Gen Fu's death or the fact that he was stuck here and had to do his part. It was probably because he was a Jinchuuriki and wanted to fill the void in his heart even more so than the love his parents gave him. That had to be the reason. He wanted to make a difference, yeah, but fighting was all he knew how to do. The time he spent as a shinobi infused the will to fight in him. The desire to strive for something better was the nature of the human heart and soul. But because he was a Jinchuuriki, former or not, was the real reason. He had a power that could help change the world. Why not put it to good use?

Ty Lee realized an answer wasn't coming and gently put one hand on his cheek. Courage from somewhere moved her into action as she pulled his head gently to her shoulder and hugged him. She felt him tense. Had he never been hugged or just not been hugged in a long time?

She let go and smiled at him. He gave her a confused glance before watching her pick up his book and sat it down next to him on the bed.

"I never thought about it when I was fighting, but my power can't exist anymore than it has to," he said softly. Ty Lee looked confused. "I never thought I'd be the first… and last… of my kind." He didn't care at the moment. Whether she understood or not made little difference to him. All that matter now was ending the war. "Ty Lee, I can't ask much from you. I've done bad things to you. And I deeply regret them. But if we make it out of this, what is to come, I promise you'll have your answers."

Her hand squeezed his. Naruto didn't think anything about her grip, but more on the touch of her skin against his. His skin was smooth, not rough from years of fighting. He had seen Lee's hands before. They were worn out so badly that it was amazing that they even looked human at times. And even with all the healing techniques his village knew, no matter how many times he got them healed they would never be the same after a while. But Naruto, with his natural healing by Kyuubi's power, kept his skin smooth and fresh.

But Ty Lee's hands were smooth with just a hint of roughness to them. It wasn't much.

She patted his hand gently and then let go, stepping back and away from him.

The blond rose and gave her a quick glance. "Wanna go to the beach with the others?" He didn't give her a chance to think on an answer. He tore off his clothing and walked to the drawer where his clothes that he bought to keep up his disguise were located. He yanked out some teal colored shorts and put them on. When he bent over to get his first leg through he noticed that Ty Lee, while still dressed in her clothing, was staring right at him. More specifically, his read end. He shook his head and put his shorts on before turning to face her fully. Her eyes were glued to his groin, even though it wasn't showing. "Get dressed," he said with a hint of humor.

Ty Lee came from her stupor, turned, and ran straight into the door when she tried to yank it open. It was a comical effect that Naruto couldn't help but laugh at.

(-)

The beach was not packed with people. This made Zentrai feel very nervous as he sat in the sand, a drink in one hand, and his porn in the other while watching the teens all run around screaming, building, and surfing. He didn't care. According to Zuko, and their reports, this entire chunk of land was actually owned and controlled by Fire Lord Ozai, not just because he was the current ruler of the Fire Nation, but also because it was a piece of land he actually owned long before he become the Fire Lord. So that meant that while people might be allowed to wonder around on the beach, this section of the beach was closed off. No one was allowed on it with the exception of the Fire Lord himself.

But after spending so much time either hiding in location that could easily be defended by the Elite Assassin or hiding in plain sight, this was not something he was used to. He would have felt much safer if the place was crammed with people, all rubbing shoulders, staring at the others, and just being goofy and having fun. Chaos. That was what that was and he would take that over this any day of the week. Of course the benefit to having the entire place to themselves also enabled him to do other things. Namely piss his friends and those he was meant to protect off.

Hakoda took a drink of his tea, nearly forgetting that he was sitting next to the most dangerous Assassin in the organization. He sipped it gently, basked in the taste, and said, "Don't you want to go swimming or play in the sand?"

The mute shook his head. _"Not a fan of playing in the sand," _he told him. _"I like to just sit back and enjoy the view." _

Hakoda rolled his eyes, never once bothering to check where the man was looking. He didn't care. If he was checking out his daughter, Hakoda really didn't mind. He was proud of his daughter. She was deserved a good man. Not Zentrai. He had no personal grudge against the man, but he just didn't like the idea of his daughter sleeping with this… thing. He didn't seem like a man at times. And when it was required of him to be a monster, he was something else it seemed. The reports were always, to him anyways, false about this guy. A brutal killing machine, yes, but not like how they made him seem.

Zentrai tapped Hakoda lightly on the shoulder to get his attention. _"When was the last time you had sex?"_

Hakoda blinked stupidly. "Before my wife died."

"_How long ago was that?"_

"Too long."

"_Ever thought about just going and getting remarried?"_

Hakoda leaned closer into the rock and began to think on that one. He had never truly thought about it but once in his life time. That was before he left the village. He had thought about dating, but at the age his kids were at, he thought it might not be such a good idea. Better to milk the cow for free anyways. Best part about that was never waking up to some nagging woman. He hated that he thought about that and that he had checked out so many girls along the way. Earth Kingdom girls were something else.

Zentrai shrugged, deciding to forgo reading the mind of his current companion and say, _"I don't know about you, but I once cam so hard that my balls inverted. That was a painful chore in the end. Not pleasant. That was after going without sex for a month. Worst month of my life." _He shook his head as if the very thought of the moment gave him extreme pain. _"Never hold it all in for a month man. It's not a wise idea."_

Hakoda, stupidly, thought about how long it had been since he had relieved himself and didn't like the amount of time that had gone by.

The mute was thankfully not reading his mind. While he could have just gone in now and plucked the information from him, there was no point. His face showed it all. He hadn't done anything of the sort in years. Zentrai sympathized for the man. The love of a woman, the one you loved with all your heart, was something that you just couldn't really get over. Anything you did with another woman or alone seemed wrong once they were gone and you never felt the same. Other women can try to fill the void, but that one special person was the one you had eyes for and with them gone… you were just an empty person. That void could be sedated by physically hurt themselves or others in order to fill the void or help them move on while others turned to the company of friends and drank their sorrows away. And those that had reached the bottom of the dark pit they were trapped in drank deep in the pleasure of other women.

Zentrai decided to avoid the topic in general and watch the others run around doing various things. Aang was in the middle of building an Appa sand sculpture. It was pretty life like. Sokka was running around with buckets of water, a mad grin on his face as he passed by Suki a half a dozen times, each time carrying something different. Zentrai didn't bother reading his mind. He was a love struck teenager trying to please his girlfriend. No need for reading minds. Katara ran around on the skirt of the beach right at the waters' edge and then jumped on top of it start surfing on a block of ice. Zentrai wasn't sure what Toph was doing, but she was clearly up to something.

The mute watched them for a half an hour before Naruto and Ty Lee showed up. In that time Sokka had showed the fruits of his labor. He had constructed a large portrait of Suki, one that was rather ugly looking and not at all something that anyone would want to show their girlfriend. Toph had showed off her Sandbending skills by creating a tiny town of Ba Sing Se with all the rings, buildings, and a tiny figure of Bosco and the Earth King.

Naruto sat beside his friend for a moment before leaving to walk down on the beach. Ty Lee followed but at a slower pace and soon decided to catch up once they were gone. Zentrai paid them no mind.

Lyra sat down beside Toph and, much to her annoyance, leaned back and caught the young Earthbender as she decided to plop down on her bare stomach. Lyra suddenly laughed. "Your hair tickles," Lyra told her.

Toph shrugged and got back up before leaning sideways on her propped up arm. "So what did you think of my Sandbending? Pretty cool, huh?"

Lyra shrugged, having no idea on what to really say. She couldn't Sandbend and had no real love for it.

"So what do you think my parents think about me right now? I mean, did leave them."

Lyra really had no answer for that. She hadn't kept up with the day to day war that was going on. Just the bits of information that were needed so she knew who was friend and who was foe. So she had no idea on what the village was like neither where Toph had lived nor the status of her family. She prayed they were among the living and not captured victims of the war.

The young Earthbender sighed and "watched" as Sokka and Suki ran off to go do something. Toph had a sneaking idea on what they were going to go do but never said anything.

"What do you think of Ty Lee and Mai?"

The question threw Toph for a loop for a moment. She regained her wits and shrugged her shoulders in the way only a small child could.

"They're okay. I have no complaints about them."

"Even after they captured you at Ba Sing Se?"

"Yeah. Even after that." Toph inclined her head so that she was now looking at her. It was for show, but it got the message across. "They were only following their orders. I'm sure I would have done the same in their situation. And besides, it's not like they really hurt me. I mean Ty Lee was the only one to hurt me, but she didn't do because she enjoyed it."

"Good point."

The two sat in silence and watched as Aang gave lessons to Sokka on Sand Sculpting while Suki sat back and laughed loudly when Sokka tried and failed to defend his artwork.

"Do you think my parents will want me back after what I've done?"

Lyra shrugged. "No clue. I know I would. You're their only daughter and heir unless they somehow had another child in the last few months. So I think they'll take you back." She gave the girl a pat on the shoulder with a big smile. "And besides, if they don't take you back, you can always come join us. We probably could use some Metalbenders to teach our people. Might as well be you."

"That's only if my parents don't take me in with loving arms, right?"

Lyra nodded slowly. It was like they'd just let her join. After this was over they'd probably request that someone keep close tabs on her.

The two sat in silence, watching the clouds pass them by, or at least Lyra did, and listened to Suki and Sokka talk about something or another. The breeze kicked up and Toph feigned a happy smile. Lyra did too. There was no stopping what was coming. They all seemed to know it. And with the world finally plunging into darkness, Lyra began to wonder if her choices in life were now about to come back and bite her in the butt. All the choices she had made were for the village and the world. But mostly for the village.

She sighed in frustration and decided that thinking on it was a waste of time. Besides, Zentrai was already starting to round everyone up for a meeting of some sort.

(-)

Ozai stood in front of the mirror, his eyes staring straight into the reflection of his eyes. He searched for an answer in them. He saw nothing

He turned and walked away from the mirror, his long robs trailing behind him as he stormed through his hallways. He had a meeting to attend to concerning the next stage of his plan. He was sort of screwed, really.

His plan had been to leave the Fire Nation in the love and carrying hands of his daughter or Zuko. Originally he was going to have them fighting in a battle to the death in Agni Ki. However, that was quickly ruined by Zuko's betrayal. That didn't really throw a wrench into his plans by any means. It actually helped him. Zuko's failures were too great to be ignored and he had no desire to leave his throne to an incompetent man like that. And there was also the time he spent with Iroh to consider. Iroh would have straight up ended the war if he had taken the throne. So if Zuko took it over he might just end the war as well. He couldn't have that.

So that only left Azula. His daughter had been the right choice. The only real choice in his eyes. But she was captured by the enemy. He presumed she was still among the living. He didn't believe in the cosmic bond of parents and their children. But a part of him told him that she was still out there and alive. Why would they take her and not kill her? That made no sense to him.

But without her his plans were slightly ruined. He had wanted to leave her all the power of the Fire Nation while he became the Phoenix King and took over the entire world. With the world under his thumb he would be able to do anything he wanted. No one would be able to question his rule. But the cold reality was that Azula had been captured and wasn't here for her part of the plan.

He tucked a stray strand of hair behind his ear before moving towards the next set of chambers. The men weren't inside yet, but he knew the reason. Only two were supposed to show up. He had no idea on where they currently were, but he had a few ideas at the moment. Something was horribly wrong. This meeting was called in only because something major had happened. Meaning this meeting was not something he called in for.

He waited in his throne; his eyes glued to the entrance as if expecting some sort of monster to come to come out of the shadows and strike him down. Part of him wished for such a thing. He wasn't sure why he wanted that. It was the most mindboggling thing to him. Why did he want to die? That was the most absurd thing ever to him. Why would he, a man who has everything and soon to have the entire world under his fingertips, want to die? That made no sense. Were the Spirits trying to deny him his right?

Ozai glanced to his right. Something was bugging him. He felt like he was being watched. His guards were nowhere to be seen.

The soft tap of boot on wood sounded through the chamber. This chamber was built to make sure that you could hear everyone, even if they whispered, so hearing the soft tap of boot on wood wasn't hard to pick up.

The man that entered stood at the edge of the table, his long graying hair covering his eyes. He wore black garb with not a single piece of flesh visible say for skin around his eyes. The bottom of his face was covered by a metal mask with two long fangs hanging from where the mouth would be located. He didn't have any visible weapons that he could see, but Ozai wouldn't put it past this man to have any.

"Fire Lord Ozai," the woman, as the voice told him, spoke with a calming sense and no urgency. "I bring you bad news. Your meeting has been canceled. The men that requested a meeting with you have fallen."

Ozai stared at this woman for a moment. He wasn't too sure if she was a woman. She didn't look the part. She sounded like a woman.

"Explain," he demanded in a harsh voice.

The female snapped her fingers. The cloth doors parted and allowed two Imperial Firebenders to entered hefting a bleeding man between them. His head hung down and they actually had to drag him in. Both of his legs were broken. Blood dripped from his face and onto the ground. He protested for a moment as if he were trying to get to his feet but was silenced by one of the guards that turned and smashed their fist into his face. Ozai took a sick pleasure from that.

The female motioned to the man. "We found him in the home of General Tsuna, one of you newly appointed Generals. Tsuna was murdered by this man, as were the others that were with him."

"Kill him."

The female snapped her fingers. Both guards pulled a fist back and then thrust it forward with a ball of fire in their palms. The flames converged on his head and melted his flesh from his bone. There was no scream of pain or sobbing cries as his body hit the ground. His skin on his face was melted clean off. No longer would anyone be able to recognize the man.

"Discard the body. The smell is already starting to stink up the place."

The female snapped her fingers again and the two guards departed without a word. Ozai looked her over and then laced his fingers together. "So will you be giving me a report on my daughter?"

She tensed slightly. She was one of _his _fighters. As strange as it was for him to think of her as a fighter rather than a woman, just saying that she was one of _his _men didn't quiet sound right. That sounded sexist.

"We have nothing new to report, Fire Lord Ozai." He bristled at the words. They hadn't found his daughter yet? "I will skip trying to make you understand what's taking so long and get straight to the point. They don't want her to be found. If I had to guess, they're trying to breed her for her powerful bending and blood. The Blue Flame she carries would make an exceptional weapon in anyone's arsenal Add in the fact that she has Royal Blood and that would be a good reason as any to breed her."

"This must not come to pass," he bellowed. "I will not have the treasure of the Fire Nation in the hands of anyone else, lest of all the Assassins." The female winced at his tone, but nodded. Supposing she was pregnant now, they had nine months to find her. And if she wasn't pregnant yet or dead, they had a year roughly. "Speed up the process. Do whatever it takes. Find my daughter! Or so help me; your head will be resting in my wall of fire."

Her eyes danced to the rising flames behind his throne and thought about it for a moment. She really didn't want to lose her head.

"Understood, Fire Lord Ozai." She bowed and departed without a word.

(-)

The meeting didn't go well. No one, with the exception of Zuko and Mai, was prepared for it.

"Just so I understand," Aang whispered. "Ozai is planning on burning down the _entire _Earth Kingdom?"

Naruto slowly nodded. It was best that he give the bad news. Zentrai wasn't good with it, even if he could convey his feelings on the matter. And Zentrai, whether intentional or not, would actually put his hatred and remorse into his words. It was just another part of him that he did naturally. Human thoughts were passionate. That was how Zentrai was with his own thoughts.

Naruto told them only the basics but once he got conformation to tell them everything, he explained their plans and how they were being sent to stop them. What he left out of course was their plan to take back Ba Sing Se. That had to remain under the radar. Naruto didn't tell them about the Order of the White Lotus either, though he had a sneaking suspicion that Zuko knew about them. Iroh was after all a member of said group.

Everyone took the news hard. Hakoda steeled himself quicker than the others and nodded.

"So we fight back," he declared with no hint of hatred. He was calm. "We'll continue to fight back. Even at the cost of our lives. That's all we can do now."

"So how do we attack him?" Suki asked. "If we want to stop this war, we have to take out the Fire Lord. So where is he?"

Zentrai leaned forward, his body going stiff as he spoke. _"We don't know at the moment. He's probably back in the Fire Nation Capital, but we can't confirm that. Since Naruto yanked out his clones some time ago, we have no way of monitoring the inside anymore. And what spies we have on the inside can't send out anything. We might as well be blind and deaf at the moment."_

"So… we go to the Fire Nation Capital before he can depart and kill him," Sokka declared.

"And hope we get lucky enough to know where he is and deal with him?" Lyra shook her head in disgust. "No. That won't work. In order to beat him now we have to hit him while he tries to burn down the Nation. That's the only option we have now. Hit him while he hits the world."

"So we stop him and end the war," Aang announced with certainty. "That shouldn't be that hard with you guys helping out."

Naruto shook his head. "You're wrong, Aang. We can't take him out. You have to kill him yourself. If we did it the world would look at it as a failure on your end and the name of the Avatar would lose its whatever chance it has of regaining its honor and the respect it gave the innocent. You have to kill him yourself."

Aang ducked his head back. Killing wasn't something he wanted to do.

"If you simply capture or cripple him it won't do us any good," Naruto pressed on. "He has too much power in the world to be a good thing for us if he survives. He could mass an army and take back what is his. Even if someone new takes the throne, someone with a pure heart that truly wants the war over, it won't matter. The soldiers would listen to Ozai. In order to see this war end, Ozai has to die. There is no other way, Aang. And you have to kill him. Failure to do so will result in nothing for us. We won't gain anything."

"You make it sound simple."

Naruto closed his eyes. "You're right. It isn't as simple as it sounds. Some of are too pure for this world. Some of us can't live with the knowledge of killing another. And I'm not going to stand here and tell you that you're not someone that can do that. That choice is entirely up to you. If you can kill him, do it. But if you can't, just die trying. If you fall to him, then we can easily kill him and the world will think you did it at the cost of your own life."

"So you could kill him, but only if Aang died fighting him?" Katara asked calmly. Her eyes lowered to the cup in her hand. "Do you hate him that much?"

"_No," _Zentrai cut in. _"We don't personally hate him. But what you make the world do is why we hate the Avatar. Before the power of the Avatar came in, we were a strong race of people that fought our own battles. Yes, we nearly destroyed ourselves. But that's not the point. If you look back at our history you will see that we fought our own battles and relied on no one. So with the creation of the Avatar we got a sense of peace. But that peace was false. Everyone lived in fear of what the Avatar might do. Aang, you are young, and can easily be misguided from the truth. That is why the Avatar is a sign of our weakness."_

"So you hate what I cause the world to become?" Aang considered that. He could seek advice from Roku or the previous Avatars, but what truths would he truly find? He didn't want to think about it. "I do what I deem right. But I want you to understand that if I can't kill him, even after all the damage he's caused, I don't want him to be killed. I'd rather have you guys lock him somewhere deep underground."

"We'll consider that option," Lyra said before either boy could respond. "However, right now we need to rest." She made a nod for the house. The others all followed suit.

"I'm going to meditate for a while," Aang informed them. "I'll be in when I'm done."

No one said anything.

(-)

She was freed from the prison she had been trapped in and had no idea why. She didn't care. She had only one goal: To return to her Nation.

Azula staggered to the left, stopped, walked to the right, and then came to a sudden halt. She forgot which way to walk for a moment before heading off towards the west. She thought that was right direction. Maybe it wasn't. She had no idea. All she knew was that she was free.

She stumbled for hours in the dead of night. She passed absentmindedly through village after village without stopping to demand anything of them. That was like her, right?

She stopped outside of a town, turned back to it, considered burning it to the ground for not welcoming her, then remembered that she hadn't eaten in days. Was it days? She couldn't remember. She only remembered the taste and smell of a man. Or was it men?

Her hunger ate away at her. She fought against the inclosing darkness and continued in the direction she thought her Capital was located. She had no idea if it was or wasn't. All she knew was that it took her far away from the Assassins. That was a good thing.

Azula dropped to her knees and vomited. She stared down at the mucus that came out and thought she saw food. It was just grass and rocks. No food. What Royalty would eat their own vomit anyways? That was so far beneath them that it was degrading just to think like that.

She slowly returned to her feet and continued walking. She had to get home.

(-)

Calamity stood at the ready. Giving orders was a natural thing for him. All orders were natural when he gave them. But when he took orders from someone else it was degrading and unnatural to him. He might as well have been trying to figure out the mind of a woman. He would have had better luck.

He wondered where Azula was at the moment. He let her go. So he was naturally curious about where she would head first. He thought it best to follow her but quickly decided against it. She needed to be paranoid. This would work better. He would have felt better if he had some like Zentrai in the Assassins. Zentrai was good, but he wanted his own little minion to do the real dirty work he longed for. If you wanted to make someone afraid of everything, have them hear a voice in their head and you could ruin them.

A train of wagons approached and he hastily made his way to the side of the road. A dozen other people stood around him. Some were regular people just trying to get a lift. Others weren't.

They entered the wagons, shut the door, and waited until they were out of town. With no words spoken, the Assassins leaned forward and stabbed the men that weren't Assassins in the throat and chest before kicking them out onto the dirt roads. They made sure they were dead before discarding them.

"We're secure," Kar announced. He put his mask back on and tore his shirt off. "It won't take the villagers long to figure out that they were being targeted by us."

"They served their purpose," Calamity informed him. He looked out the window. "We only have a few hours before we reach the sea. From there, we charter a boat to take us to the Earth Kingdom and then to Ba Sing Se. There, we meet up with the others and take back, Ba Sing Se, correct?" Kar nodded wordlessly. Calamity sighed. "How I hate taking orders. Nevertheless, we have a job to do. When we arrive on the boats, kill everyone and then we move out."

"Are you sure you want to have them all killed? We could…"

Calamity sighed. "We can't take any chances. This is the end game. The final power. We can't leave anything to chance."

Kar turned away. "Understood."

(-)

Darkness fell before the power of the rising sun.

Zentrai was the first one up. The mission was about to start. His orders were clear. They were to head to Ba Sing Se and link up with the Assassins and the Order of the White Lotus. They would plan their moves from there. He had no idea on how they were planning to assault the Airship Fleet. Naruto had no idea either. His clone had simply been ordered to go to Rehka, learn when they were linking up with the others, and then disperse to give them the information.

The plan to get them there was never worked out. Naruto had said that Zentrai should just state that they were to follow or die. The mute didn't like that idea. He wasn't completely against it, but he thought that he had forced them to do enough as it was. Then news was the main to hit them hard. He didn't need them hating him anymore than what they already did. Even though he didn't care what others thought about him, he did want to do the right thing. Forcing them would be easy, but they would never go along with their plan in the end. So he was left to think of a way to handle the situation.

He scanned Lyra's mind as she awoke and began working on breakfast with Katara and Suki. The three females spent twenty minutes getting water ready and then getting their food prepared. It took them an hour before it was all ready. By that time the others had awoken and were down in the courtyard getting ready to eat.

Once everyone, with the exception of Aang who never showed up, finished eating, they began getting packed. Zentrai had explained to them during breakfast what was going on. They all agreed that moving out and dealing with the situation now as to waiting was out of the question.

"Where's Aang?" Katara stuffed her Fire Nation clothes into her bag.

"Good question," Zuko answered.

Toph slammed a foot down into the wooden floors. It felt like the entire house shook beneath her single, small, foot. "He's gone," she reported.

"Split up," Hakoda ordered without breaking stride for the door.

In short order the house, beach, and town, were searched. No sign of Aang. That wasn't good. After searching for the entire morning and coming up empty they met up on the stairs of the house, reported what they learned, and then sat down with depressing expressions. The only thing they found was his staff, which was rather creepy given what was going on.

"So he just vanished?" Naruto groaned and looked to the others. Rai and Shibaru began to whine. "What do you two think?"

Rai opened his mouth wide, yawned, and then pawed at the ground. Shibaru looked out to the ocean. Zentrai blinked but upon reading their minds understood what they were getting at. _"He's not here anymore. He's alive, but not on the island."_

"Where could he have gone?" Sokka quarried. "You think he's on some sort of a Spirit Journey or something like that? He has been known to do that from to time."

Shibaru pawed at the ground in front of Zentrai's feet. _"No. Aang was trying to clear his mind so he had an understanding of what to do. Perhaps his mind called out to something and it answered him, offering an answer. Shibaru does seem to be watching the ocean. Whatever the case, we can't let this stop us. Aang will face the Fire Lord, one way or another."_

"But we have to find him," Zuko reminded. "He's supposed to face the Fire Lord and we have to be there to back him up."

"I actually agree with Zuko on this," Lyra put in. "We need to find him. But if he's not here on the island, we need to figure out where he went."

Naruto grabbed Aang's staff. The large beasts gave it a sniff before sitting on their rear ends. Naruto sighed and shook his head. "Not strong enough of a scent for them."

Zuko snapped his fingers. "I know where to start looking. But we need to get to the Earth Kingdom."

Zentrai nearly spit out his drink when he read Zuko's mind. The former prince seemed to understand what he was thinking and gave him a nod. Zentrai ignored his nod and glanced at his blond companion. No one understood the meaning behind it.

(-)

The docks weren't well guarded. That was pathetic and stupid on the Fire Nation's end. They were in the middle of a war. Two wars if someone thought about it correctly. They were fighting two Nations, one that was entrenched so deep that it was near impossible to root them out, and the other fighting in their face with all the strength they had, actually winning victories out in sea. The other war they fought was against the Assassins, though that was actually a losing battle on their end. But they should have learned at this point to guard the small things. Guarding the docks should have been a high priority since they were an island Nation.

Whatever the case, Calamity was glad that security was weak and pathetic.

Without a word spoken he strolled up to the guard house, stepped inside, and shot the lone guard with a wrist mounted crossbow. The bolt tore a hole through his neck and the guard dropped with only the softest of groans. Once he was confirmed dead-another bolt to the head-Calamity gave the all clear.

Kar, Topaz, and a half-dozen men and women stood before him. He longed to go with them, but he was needed at the campsite for the Order of the White Lotus, more commonly known as the Order of Old People by Calamity. He made fun of them, but not because they were all old people striving for something better in the world, but because they were simple minded. They believed in unity. That was stupid. Unity would never come. Eventually, even the hungriest of animals would eat their own kin. That was all unity was to him. Just another word for murder.

To the East was the Earth Kingdom and its capital, Ba Sing Se. That was where Calamity and the bulk of the Assassins he had working for him were heading. To the Northeast was the mountains that ran alongside Ba Sing Se. That was where Kar, Topaz, and the selected men and women were heading. They had the hardest job of them all. They're job was to sneak into the city inside the Crystal Catacombs that ran beneath the entire city. Hope was not on their side as they had learned that most of the passages were blocked. But not all of them were blocked, and thankful, no one had been detected.

The plan was simple. They sneak in, finish their assigned duties before the comet arrives, and then hit the enemy from behind. Not a hard task, but not an easy one.

"Good luck," Kar said with a wave.

"I don't believe in that," Calamity replied.

Kar shrugged and departed with the others. The wagons were already ready for them when they had arrived so it didn't take them long to get out of sight. Calamity remained behind, staring straight ahead towards Ba Sing Se. He didn't want to be here. Not that he didn't want to fight, but rather, he saw no grand victory in this. They were already going to win. He knew it. He planned for it. But it was dull and unworthy of his attention. Rehka had little faith in his strategies. He didn't care. She wasn't that smart anyways.

Calamity made his way to the wagons and entered. They began to move as the last of his soldiers got in. That sounded better than say 'men' since it wasn't completely accurate. Calamity kept a collection of men and women in his ranks, but mostly women. Women, as he had always known, were far more useful than men. Men were stupid creatures ruled by sex and exotic drinks. Women can easily rule a man that is ruled by these things. Men's stupidity in believing they were superior to women was their major downfall. All a woman had to do was wink with a seductive smile and they were often snared. Men couldn't do that, or rather, wouldn't do that.

And in the world they lived in, to him, it seemed, there were more females fighting on the frontlines or gathering information. In what some would have called the "Old Days" that would have been frowned upon. But take out the protocols in war, reduce the enemy's numbers, and things change real fast. Culture be damned and rules be damned. If the enemy targets women and child first, do you play the role of the good person and leave their women a children alone? No you do not. You strike back. You kill their women and children. And when things get desperate, you get desperate. You turn to your women for support and think up wild ideas.

That was how part if all came around. Women were used to get information. Beautiful women at that. The kind that had the curves, the bust, the lips, and that seductive wink that could soil a man with but a glance. Those were the women that used first and foremost. They were used, they knew it. They didn't care. They wanted to help end the war. Was that so wrong? But as time grew on, the war dragging everyone through the mud and blood, something changed. Somewhere down the road-and even Calamity didn't know-women rose up, turned on their men entirely, and fought the war in their stead. Not because they wanted to, but rather, because they had the power to and they were tired of being suppressed.

Did Calamity blame them? No. He didn't blame them. They were tired of the old ways. They wanted change. And they knew that if they wanted it, they had to do it on their own. So they fought back. Took control of situations with only the mind a woman could possess and struck down their oppressors who abused their power. Women weren't strong like men. They relied on their looks. That was true. But not all the time. Some women were tough fighters that could trade blows with even the best and strongest of men. Others were sneak thieves. And then there were the ones that Calamity had.

His women, as he often thought of them, were women that could fight, steal, learn, adapt, kill, and lure you into their bed where you were their play thing. That was what he had wanted. He didn't want a girl that worried about her looks. He wanted cold killers. He got them.

Calamity drew in a deep breath and watched the countryside go past him. The war was on the verge of ending. It rested on the tip of a knife in more ways than one. It would end with a lot of death. It would end with the destruction of a Nation. It would end with the destruction of an era. A lot of death was coming, but for some reason, Calamity truly feared the change that was coming. He didn't know what the next game would be like. When he thought of the future he thought of a world without war, but battles that were fought between all the Nations and villages that wanted fertile land and clean water to drink. With the war going on as it was, a lot of land had been destroyed and water tainted by their chemicals. It was sickening to know that they would trade one war for another, but in reality, he didn't care about that. That was the future that humanity seemed to be taking. If it went through, he didn't care. All that mattered to him was ending one war and getting ready for the next.

Hours passed by before they reached the first wall of Ba Sing Se. The Assassins exited and stared up at the hole that had been blown into the first wall. Big enough to fit an army through it. He wondered if that was the work of the Dai Li Agents or the Order of Old People. He figured it was the latter of the two since they had some heavy hitters like Iroh and Piandao with. Pakku was a nobody in his eyes, along with King Bumi.

He sighed and decided to continue. No use in turning away now. It would look bad for him to turn away when he was so close to taking over the Assassins.

(-)

It took them an entire day to reach the spot where Zuko and Zentrai needed to go. Naruto was still in the dark on what was going on, just like the others. Of course Zentrai's constant stares at his friend should have at least given him some warning on what was coming. Sadly, it didn't. Zentrai didn't want to ruin it either. This would be funny and depressing at the same time.

"Why are we at a shady Earth Kingdom tavern?" Katara asked.

Zuko pushed open the door. "June," he declared while pointing to her.

Naruto entered last and avoided most of the talk. However, he wasn't blind. As soon as he saw her he started to panic. June was beating one man senseless as she drank her water. Naruto hoped it was something else and that she was already drunk. Not likely though.

Naruto tried to hide behind the others as Zuko and Katara made small talk with the woman. She insulted them, or at least it seemed that way, and waved their ranting forms down. Naruto missed the entire conversation until Zentrai stepped forward, a big grin on his face.

"_December, so good to see you again."_

June snapped to attention and hastily moved towards him. To the others it looked like she was heading for Zentrai. Not the case. He was standing next to Naruto.

Without hesitation she punched the blond in the gut. He doubled over and tried to scamper away. No luck. She grabbed him by his shirt collar, hoisted him up and slammed him against the wall.

"I should kill you," she declared while kneeing him in the groin. Naruto gasped for air and she threw him on the floor. "Because of you, I lost a powerful client, you jerk!" She started to strangle him while shaking him violently. "What do you have to say for yourself, huh?" Naruto raised one hand as if to beg but she ignored him and continued to strangle him. "Why won't you answer me?"

"Let him go!" Ty Lee yanked the woman back and stared down at her crush. "Naruto, are you okay?"

The blond coughed while rolling over. He raised one hand to push Ty Lee back. Not because he didn't want her near him, but rather, because he knew that June wasn't finished. Sure enough she tackled him back into the ground and continued to hit him in the back of the head. "It wasn't my fault that you got me as your target." She smashed his head into the wood floors. "I'm sorry for what happened." She kneed him again in the groin. "But I will say this." She elbowed him hard in the middle of his back. "If you don't stop hitting me, I'm going to break every bone in your body."

June was still on top of him, but considered that for a moment. "Zentrai," she swooned while jumping into his arms. "I knew you'd come back for me."

Confusion spread from that point. Zentrai laughed and flashed everyone a big smile.

Hakoda gave the woman a quick glance and then stared down at the blond Assassin as he grudgingly got to his feet. "That sucked," Naruto muttered.

"That's what you get for tricking me!" June snapped.

"Hold up!" Mai shouted. "Isn't this backwards? I mean, I suppose you can hate Naruto, some of us do. But why are you doing that with him?" She pointed to the mute with fire burning in her eyes. "I bet he doesn't even remember your name."

"_Like I could ever forget Saturday here." _

"Let's get outside before anything else goes wrong," Zuko suggested.

No one was about to argue that point. Once outside, June called for her pet, Nyla, who immediately entered a growling contest with Appa. Appa won, but only because he licked her to confuse the large beast. As if to make things better for her pet, June threw her a piece of meat. Nyla greedily wolfed it down and tried to lick her master. June nearly freaked and uttered a quick warning to her pet.

"Alright, who's got something with the Avatar's scent on it?" June queried.

"I have Aang's staff," Katara answered.

She tossed the staff down. June snatched it out of the air and brought it to her pets' nose. Nyla took a few sniffs, walked around in a circle while sniffing the air, and then simply plopped down on the ground, her paws coming to her nose as if to indicate that there was no one with that scent.

"Well what does that mean?" Zuko asked.

"It means your friend is gone."

"We know he's gone," Toph snapped. "That's why we're trying to find him."

"No I mean he's gone-gone. He doesn't exist."

"_November means that Aang's scent is being overpowered by something stronger than his own," _Zentrai explained. Zentrai leaned down and stroked Nyla's head. _"Now the only thing we can do is have you guys tag along and follow us. Friday, you up for a fun time on the battlefield?"_

"Thanks, but no thanks."

The mute shrugged while Naruto considered their options. They had none at the moment outside of their orders.

"If you guys don't need me anymore, I'll be going now," June informed that.

Zuko ordered her to stop saying that he had another scent she could use. He jumped onto Appa and started rooting through his pack. Naruto sighed and leaned against a tree, Rai opting to lie down at his feet while Ty Lee glared daggers at the female tracker. It took a matter of minutes before Zuko brought out the smell sample. It was Iroh's sweaty sandal. Toph thought it was cute how he kept the belonging of his uncle.

Nyla sniffed it over for a long time before picking up a trace of the scent. "Let's do this." June kicked Nyla and they were off.

The others mounted Appa and began their journey in search of Iroh. Naruto gave Zentrai and Lyra a hard look. In the end they were complying with their orders, though the Avatar group had no one of knowing this.

(-)

Hours dragged the trip on. The darkness that had taken over when they had found June had long since given way to the coming dawn. They never stopped though. They continued to travel even when the sun finally lowered beyond the horizon. In that time Zentrai made small talk with June. He let the others in on rare occasions just to let them know what they were talking about and inform them about why June hated Naruto so badly.

Two years ago she had been requested for a mission by the Fire Nation. Her job had been the hunt down the Bloody Inferno that was Naruto. Word got back to him about what was going on, and to make sure he remained hidden Naruto created five clones and sent them out in different directions. And since there was no way to tell the difference between a clone and the real one, June was sunk from the very beginning. She never got the real one. Naruto had been lucky when she gave up. His last clone had been destroyed and what memories it had weren't pleasant when it concerned the female.

Her one night stand with Zentrai was also mentioned. It had taken place before her mission to capture Naruto. He had wooed her with his abilities and because she had been desperate for sex she had gone with him. It was the longest week of Zentrai's life as far as he was concerned. June was hungry for sex and hadn't gotten any in years. It had been one thing after another. And when he started putting the moves on her she just went for it. It never hurt to have some fun.

After two more hours of traveling things became clear for the Avatar team. Zentrai let them in on what was going on. They weren't very happy about it, but since it complied with what they needed to do they were okay with it.

Naruto pulled out his book and started reading. Ty Lee noticed and crept closer to him. He ignored her presence but didn't stop her from reading over his shoulder. He was on the part where "Naruto" was about to take down a bridge that lead from Iwa to Konoha. It was an important mission for sure. With the bridge gone they could triple the length the enemy had to travel while Konoha forces began burning crops so that the enemy had to actually use their rations and call in for food rather than use their own. It was a dangerous mission with a costly sacrifice.

However, "Naruto" was able to get the job down. His team destroyed the bridge and burned the crops. _"A noble sacrifice, but nonetheless a sacrifice," _he told his team.

Naruto snapped the book closed. That was where the chapter ended. He had no intention of reading into the next. They were almost on top of their target.

Darkness consumed them and Nyla began to get twitchy. Naruto stared ahead. His gaze was locked on the hole in the great wall of Ba Sing Se. To him this was his greatest failure. He had failed to protect the city as an Assassin and a Warrior. In his mind he felt he could have won as a Ninja. If all of his Jutsus were at his disposal he could have saved the city. He would have liked that. A lot of people died on the inside. There was no mistaking that.

June gave them a simple goodbye before departing. Naruto watched her go and then stared out beyond the broken wall as the others made camp.

Sleep came quickly. Toph slept in her earth tent. Suki slept with Sokka. Katara slept close to her dad, but not too close to give Zentrai much thought on the matter. Zuko slept right up to Mai. Zentrai was resting against a tree with one eye opened. Naruto was awake and watching over Ty Lee and Lyra as they slept closer to the remains of the fire.

It gave Naruto a chance to think as it were. Guard duty often allowed him such a thing. He enjoyed it only because it gave him a chance to think. But his thoughts were clouded by Ty Lee. She was a drug to him now that she was back. He found himself wanting to be closer to her. He knew why. It was because he had feelings for her. As much as he wanted to ignore these feelings and let them die, he knew it wasn't that simple. She was already in him. Now he just needed to find a way to deal with her.

But where to begin? He had never really told someone he loved them. And even then, what would they talk about? Naruto had only known the war. Ty Lee knew more than him. As sad as it was, Naruto knew that Ty Lee would be the one start conversations and they mostly revolve around questions for him. He didn't mind. Zentrai and Lyra seemed to accept where he came from and what he was.

A snapped twig had him on high alert.

Toph's earth tent lowered and fire consumed the entire camp.

Everyone woke up in a flash. A class of steel echoed through the roar of the flames. All eyes turned upwards as a darting blur leapt back up onto the remains of the wall where it had collapsed. Six figures stood on the broken wall, four of which wore white and black robes with a flower design on the white. Each was easily recognized as Bumi, Pakku, Piandao, and Jeong Jeong. The other two were hard to recognize but it was clear that Sokka knew one of them while the other, a female, was a mystery.

"Blindside," Sokka growled. His sword was already drawn, just like Blindside's had been drawn. A quick battle had clearly happened with Blindside being the victor.

"Well," Bumi laughed. "Look whose here!"

The teens shared a quick smile. They had found friends. More importantly, they had found the Order of the White Lotus and the Assassins if Blindside was any indication.

(-)

"Fire Lord!"

Ozai's head snapped up. He had ordered that no one disturb him.

The doors were thrown open and a guard dropped to his knees. He slid it seemed.

"We found her! We found your daughter!"

Ozai jumped from his throne. "Bring her to me!"

"Sir, that-"

A blast of fire scorched the ground next to the man. "Do as I command!"

"Sir… Yes sir." The guard whistled and Azula was brought in.

For a moment, all was well in the world for Ozai. His daughter was back. She was alive. But his joy was short lived. As Azula came into view his jaw tightened and rage boiled within him. He should have expected this. His guards had done a great thing to bring her to him, but she was naked, wounded, and-if he was looking at it-gravely wounded.

"Get her to her chambers," he bellowed. "Have the healers tend to her. Bath her and dress her. I will not have my daughter seen like this."

The guard nodded and backed off just as quickly as he had entered. Azula stared up at her father. She was tired, weak, hungry, thirsty, and near delirious. She thought she could hear a voice whispering into her mind. She played it off and watched her father. She was back. Yet he turned away from her. Why didn't her embrace her? She hiccupped once and was led away. She was too weak to walk on her own and her head lolled to the side as they turned her around. The last thing she saw was her father turning away in disgust.

"I love you, Azula." The voice in the back of her head taunted her. But really, did the voice love her more than her father did? She didn't know. She went with it. She clinged to the voice and hoped that it wouldn't abandon her.


	31. Chapter 31

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 31

"She was raped."

After hearing those words, Ozai considered his options. All of his options were terrible ones. He could kill her. But that would ruin his plans. He could wait a few months and terminate the baby if she was pregnant. Or he could simply sit and wait for something good to come from this. He didn't like any of these options. And even if she had been raped, what difference did it make now? She was back in the Fire Nation and in the Capital. So if she was pregnant she could have the child here and raise it. If it was anything that wasn't a Firebender they'd kill it. Her feelings wouldn't come in with this.

"Is she pregnant?"

"Hard to tell. If she is pregnant, it's too early for us to know. These things usually don't show until two and three months in. And since we haven't seen in her about a month or so…" He let it hang there.

Rape was the only thing that Ozai was concerned with. His daughter had to have been raped. She had other problems. She was experiencing hallucinations, had gashes all over body, burn marks, whip marks. She was malnourished. They seemed to have kept her in the stable zone of hungry and thirsty without pushing it into the red zone. She got food, that a pretty obvious. And water. But she was never fully full. The first thing she had done when they got her here was eat to her hearts content. The healers said for her to take it slow. She killed that healer and continued eating. No one else gave her advice after that.

Ozai watched from behind the safety of the doorframe. His daughter was sleeping in her bed. She looked so innocent when she slept. He didn't know what to do. More than once he had thought about trying to speak with her on his plan, but she already knew it. Did she tell them? What secrets had they gotten from her? Had they learned their deployment style? Did they learn where they were going? Did they learn where he was going once he had taken over the Airship fleet and burned down the Earth Kingdom? So many questions were left unanswered and he was starting to have doubts about what-

-Kill her.

Ozai flinched. Where had that thought come from?

He turned and exited the chamber and walked towards his room. He had to sleep. His mind was already starting to play tricks on him and he didn't much like it.

(-)

Blindside dropped down to their level and Sokka took a defensive stance.

"Stand down," Naruto ordered. Sokka tensed. Friends or not, Blindside was not someone he trusted with a sword even if it was pointed at the enemy. "Sokka," Naruto said with a calm voice. "Stand down. He won't attack you."

Sokka stood in protest for a full second before sheathing his sword. Blindside's sword remain out for a full eight seconds before he sheathed it. With hostilities out of the way, the others came down and greeted their fellow friends.

"What's going on? We're surrounded by old people!" Toph exclaimed.

"Not just any old people," Katara retorted. "These are great masters and friends of ours. Master Pakku." She bowed respectfully to her master and grandfather.

"It is good to bow to a fellow master, but how about a hug for your new grandfather?"

Sokka freaked and Hakoda shook his head. Katara smiled and ran into his embrace. "That's so wonderful."

Naruto ignored the conversation and moved to the two Assassins. Blindside greeted him with a nod while Topaz, the mystery girl, offered only the slightest of glances. Zentrai joined them as the others introduced Jeong Jeong and Bumi to Zuko, Toph, and Hakoda.

"_How bad is it?" _Zentrai linked the Assassins in his mental connections.

"_Not nearly that bad," _Topaz answered. She waved to Hakoda when he took official notice of her. _"Scouts. Ten of them. We captured them already and have them under our watchful gaze in the camp. Iroh didn't want them killed, but we caught them and they are on our side of the camp. We can do with them as we please."_

Naruto whistled softly. Scouts this early meant that the Fire Nation an idea on what was going on. Or they were just unlucky and not scouting the area and going for a walk. Either way, they had most likely found the camp and had been detained before they could leave. That was a good thing at the moment and something that put the element of surprise back in their favor.

"_Kar and Reaper are leading the advanced team through the catacombs of Ba Sing Se and intend to bring down a section of the city underneath them to create panic. We haven't had any word from them since they left two days ago. And add in the fact that not everyone is currently here for the upcoming assault, we might have to improvise," _Blindside added.

"_If this is one of Calamity's plans, don't worry. He won't leave anything to chance."_Zentrai cut the mental link and motioned for them to follow the team as they began to depart.

Naruto and Blindside took point, leaving the others behind to tend to their own issues. Once they were far enough out, Blindside spoke. "Calamity is still in the camp."

"I had a feeling he would be."

"He hasn't said anything about the prisoners or the ones you carry with you, but I know him well enough to know that he will want them to prove their loyalty to the cause. They want to change their Nation. They will be ordered to kill the prisoners."

Naruto was silent for a moment. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

The two traveled the rest of the way in silence.

The landscape hadn't changed much since his last time in Ba Sing Se's outer walls, much to his surprise. The train line had been overused and was near ruined. Earthbenders had to tend to the thing regularly and without that proper maintenance the thing began to fall apart. When the Fire Nation became aware of this they started moving troops and supplies through the land. A large path of the once green grass was now flattened and turned into a dirt road where tank treads could easily be spotted. They had moved in rows of seven or eight.

When they reached the camp, Calamity was the first to great the Assassins, but was soon joined by Answerer sporting a nasty scar on her abdomen and shoulder. Blink and Inferno were also present, though Inferno was probably asleep in the armor. Geo was off with his sister in the distance, but still offered a hasty wave before disappearing into the darkness of the night.

While Piandao lead Zuko to where his Uncle was, Naruto, Zentrai and Lyra were lead to where the prisoners were located. Naruto didn't waste any time in beginning his brutal interrogation methods on them. It wasn't his style either, but he wasn't complaining just yet.

"That," Calamity said upon entering the tent, "is not what I had in mind for these ten men."

With a snap of his fingers, Ty Lee and Mai were brought in and shoved to the ground. Ty Lee sighed through it but when she noticed the prisoners she had a vague idea on what was going on. Naruto's aura flared and she thought his power was about to activate. He seemed rather upset. She could tell just by looking as his aura died out and was replaced by annoyance that a mental conversation was taking place. She wasn't privy to it, but she had an idea that it was based around the captured men.

"So we are in agreement?" Calamity suddenly spoke as if he had been in a trance and suddenly released.

Naruto nodded slowly. Lyra just shrugged and wondered off while Zentrai gave the two girls a look.

"_I don't particularly approve of this, but I see your point." _Zentrai walked to the two girls and motioned them to stand. _"While I know how loyal you are to the cause, mostly out of your desire to see this war end and to better your Nation, but we're about to take back Ba Sing Se and we can't have you guys running around without us knowing if you're on our side at the moment." _That left a bad taste in Mai's mouth with the way he told them. It sounded like he was unsure of their loyalty. _"So to that end, we want you to kill these ten people. Five for each of you."_

Mai had to process that for a few moments. Kill? These Fire Nation soldiers? Her? No way would she do that? She couldn't stand the war or the idea of fighting her Nation, but killing them straight out for no reason didn't suit her either. She wouldn't do it and her gaze made it crystal clear that whatever else was better than killing her people.

"Or your lives are forfeit," Calamity added. Mai shot him a dirty look. "I can't read minds." She blanched. "I can, however, read facial expression quiet clearly. And from the look in your eyes, it's pretty clear that you would rather die than kill these men. Am I wrong?"

"I don't wanna die. But I don't intend to kill them."

He shrugged. "Then you are left without a life. You will simply die."

"Is this your idea of a mind game, Devil Man?"

Devil Man. That was the name given to the famous Calamity in the Fire Nation. No one had ever bested him in a battle of strategy as far as Mai knew. She had heard reports about the man and his amazing talent. Some said he was a legend since he rarely appeared on the battlefield. But she knew the truth. He was real. And no matter how many times people reportedly killed him; she knew that he was never the one they killed. That was why they called him the Devil Man. He never died and he was a real Devil in their eyes.

Calamity craned his neck to the side just enough to make it seem like he was confused. Ty Lee noticed that his aura was not bathed in confusion, but annoyance. "I see the Fire Nation never gives me enough credit for an interest name like Red Angel, Bloody Inferno, Silent Death, The Butcher, Blaze, or Shadow Walker. So I will not stand here and degrade myself with comments over a name. Names are weak things anyhow."

"You say that now," Mai grumbled.

Calamity reached up to his mask. Ty Lee looked away almost instantly. Mai looked him right in the mask where his eyes should be and watched as a single eye appeared. She stared into it and blinked. Death. She saw her death in his eyes. A black void without sound, color, reason, or emotion. It was an empty pit that was trying to suck her in. As a result, she averted her gaze and gasped.

"That's not an accurate name, now is it?" His voice was hard and very calculated. It reminded her of Azula. "Names and ranks mean little me. The strongest of the strong can be brought down by the weakest of the weak. The smartest of the smart can be outsmarted by the stupidest of the stupid. So why should a name or rank mean anything to me? Call me what you want, but I prefer the name I was given when I took up this mask of mine: Calamity." His mask came back on and Mai suddenly felt the grip of his single eye loosen.

Naruto seemed annoyed by the situation but soon turned his gaze to Ty Lee. His thoughts drifted back to when she had been naked in his bed and for a fleeting moment he thought of-

"_Naruto, please leave." _

Naruto realized his error and slowly left without a word. Ty Lee watched with worry in her eyes.

"_The poison in your system is about to take effect," _Zentrai informed them. _"We will give you three hours to kill five men each. Failure to do so will result in your death. It pains me greatly to order you to do this, March. I know that you're only doing this for Zuko and that you have no intentions of joining us for love or devotion to this world. So for the sake of your Nation and the corruption you wish to destroy, kill five of them and this will be over." _His eyes drifted to the young acrobat. _"Ty Lee, you love Naruto. There is no denying that. I may joke about it, but I would never try to harm him in any form. And although he is unable to grasp the idea of love at the moment, I know he cares for you. So for your sake, and his, do this. I'd rather not kill you." _

The Assassins departed, leaving a long blade at each of their feet. They gave each other a glance and then ten men.

(-)

Pain was the first thing Aang felt when he woke up. There was a crick in his neck from the way he had slept and his head hurt as a result.

He rubbed his neck to get it out as he got to his feet. The very motion left a sharp pain running up his spine and his left leg was near fully asleep. He stomped it out and looked around. He was in a forest with Momo. An unusual forest at that.

"Where are we?"

Momo offered no answers, instead flying off to look for something to do or eat.

Aang sighed in frustration and began climbing through the forest. He was worried about his friends and about where he was. The night before hadn't been a good one for him. He had been angry with his friends about telling him that he had to kill the Fire Lord. He had been angry with them and tried to seek an answer through meditation. He wasn't sure if he found one or not, but he was here. Wherever here was.

Aang moved through the lush forest contemplating on what he could do or should do. He knew he wasn't in the Spirit Realm. A quick test of his bending proved that. And there was no way Momo could have gotten into the Spirit Realm either. But that didn't help him any. He did feel a significant amount of Spiritual Essence in the area, like a shrine would have on holy ground. But the energy was wavering and clearly moving towards him. The fact that it moved startled him as well.

The forest grew thicker as he climbed up the hill. Birds sang their morning songs while Momo chased after a few insects. But as he reached the top the forest began to thin and allow him entrance to a small plot of land.

"It's a hexagon." Aang dropped down onto it and felt it. It was smooth, not rough like normal earth or rock. He racked his knuckles against it and heard the faint thump of a hollow sound. "This doesn't feel like normal rock." He tried bending it for certain. Nothing happened. "It's not made of earth." He collapsed to the ground. "This is so strange. I wish I had some help right now. I wish I had Roku?" Realization hit him. "I do have Roku!"

Aang sat in a meditative stance and began channeling his energy and mind to let him speak with Roku. He searched for him, found him, and brought him out with a deep breath. With the exhale his energy expanded and the form of Roku appeared like a fluffy cloud forming in the sky.

"You're right, Aang," Roku spoke with wisdom and a calculated tone. "All the past Avatar's, all their experience and wisdom, is available to you if you look deep inside yourself."

"So where am I Roku? What is this place?"

"I… don't know, Aang." Roku's eyes bore down on him and for a moment Aang saw sympathy in his tired eyes. "But I see that you are lost in more ways than one right now."

Aang averted his gaze for a moment. "I am," he admitted. "I need to figure out what I'm going to do when I face the Fire Lord."

Roku took a deep breath. He was actually afraid of this. He was still bound by his emotions and could speak freely with Aang, allowing a second opinion on any matter he needed help in. And even though he was long since dead he never stopped learning. Through Aang he learned more and more as time went on. He had watched Aang grow and fight his own battles. That made him fearful of what the boy would do in this situation. The Assassins had tried to lend him aid in this matter, offering a blunt truth without trying to make it seem so hard on him.

He licked his lips and began his long story.

(-)

When Ty Lee entered Naruto's tent, the first thing that ran through his mind was how bad he felt for her.

Her chest was covered with blood and small speckles of blood splashed on her face. She was horrified. Her eyes were wide with fright. Her entire form trembled and Naruto had no real way of consoling her without possibly doing more harm than good at the moment.

With only the slightest of hesitations he took her into an embrace and rubbed her back. She sobbed into his chest and he could do nothing but try and console her for the coming battle. It took him thirty minutes to calm her down and when she did finally calm down her eyes looked straight into his eyes and said, "Does it ever get easier?"

He nodded slowly as he stroked her hair. He wanted to sound encouraging, brave even, but he knew that his words would be read wrong.

"Yes. It does eventually get easier. I've learned that it's easier to see them as the enemy rather than a human. As wrong as that sounds… it's the only thing that has kept me sane at times. Drinking helps. But not nearly as much as people tell you it does. And trying to forget it just drowns you in it. So don't think on it and never see them as humans. Just see them as the enemy and it's a lot easier." He looked away, sighing as he thought about the irony of those words. _In truth, _he admitted warily to himself, _it never does get easier. And I highly doubt that I'll ever get used to it either._

Naruto watched her for a moment and then let her cry herself to sleep on his bed. When he was certain she was sleeping he rose up off the makeshift bed and departed his tent. He wondered around for a moment before coming across Zentrai. The mute was staring up at the night sky with a faint twinkle in his eyes. The blond stopped beside him, eyeing the sky as he did.

"_They killed them all." _Zentrai's thoughts were passed to him with sadness and regret. _"Ty Lee should have been the only one to do it in my personal opinion. She wants to be with you. She'd do anything to be with you. But if I had my way I would have had Ty Lee kill them all since she wants to be with you and it would prove her loyalty to me. I would rather have Ashe chained up and left here when the other take back Ba Sing Se." _

"She shouldn't have anything to prove to you, Zentrai."

"_Ty Lee has more to prove to me than anyone else, even more so than you. Rehka may be in charge, but I am the real power of the Assassins. Never forget that. You know me well enough to know that I hate disloyal people, Naruto. I have never liked those who question me or my choices. I don't mind a second opinion, but I do not like to be challenged."_

Naruto gave him a hard glare and sighed with a shake of his head. He knew that Zentrai was right. Being an Assassin was a hard thing for him. He was always over emotional and right now he was doing it again. His feelings for her were clouding his judgment. "The sad truth is that she doesn't want to kill." Naruto scratched at the back of his head for a moment. "So what are we going to do? We can't leave them here when we head out?"

"_We won't be leaving them. As much as I'd rather do that, we can't. The only thing we can do is have them join us when we attack Ba Sing Se to take it back. Sadly though, you and I won't be going there." _

Naruto grimaced.

They were going to return to the Fire Nation and take Azula back. Of course they wouldn't be going alone. They were going to have Zuko go with them so that when she and their father fell he could take the throne and restore peace and honor. However, Naruto had a different theory on that and believed that neither peace nor honor would be returned to the Fire Nation. Shame and humility was all that the Fire Nation would feel as a result of this supposing they could win.

"_I know it was hard for them. Lily is almost broken down. She doesn't have Zuko to console her at the moment. I'd do it but she believes that I'm the one that actually forced her to do it. And Zuko is now sitting stupidly in front of Iroh waiting for him to wake up so that he can confront him. She has no one. She might try to kill herself." _Naruto tensed. _"Relax. I'll keep watch over her tonight. If she tries anything I'll stop her. But Ty Lee is different. She has you. And right now she needs you. Go to her. Comfort her in any way you can. Make her happy. Give her a reason to come back alive."_

"What do you want me to do? Bed her?"

"_That would probably be for the best, Naruto. If she survives this her world will have changed drastically. She will cling to you and only you. You will be her new world. She will follow you, Naruto. So give her a reason to come back. Because like it or not, you need her just as much as she needs you."_

Naruto sighed explosively. He didn't want to admit that Zentrai was right but even thinking that proved utterly foolish as his friend was able to pick up on it. With a depressing grunt he knew what he had to do.

Zentrai slapped a hand on his shoulder. _"Make her your woman for the night. At least do that for her. Give her that much at least for tonight. With that maybe she'll desire to live long enough to see you again and come back to you." _

The former Jinchuuriki licked his lips and nodded slowly. Without another thought he turned and walked back into the camp. He entered the tent, stared down at the sleeping form of Ty Lee, and felt a wave of pain for her. She trembled slightly from her actions prior to entering and he knelt down beside her. With a slow motion he ran a hand over her face and smiled.

On some level he was happy. But he was sad that in order to find happiness he had to destroy her life. She had risked everything, destroyed everything that made her who she was, and all to be with him. She did all that to be with him and he had thought about turning her down for no other reason than his own personal grudge about not being able to be with Hinata or Sakura. She wasn't like either of them and that was why he had been determined to turn her down.

_I'm pathetic. _

He scratched at the back of his head and pulled his hand away. He pulled back too fast and Ty Lee snapped to alert. She turned and lashed out with two quick blows to Naruto's arm. He winced from the pain but was otherwise okay. She was quickly on her feet and looking down at him with fear in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Naruto! I didn't mean to-"

He waved her off and smiled. A quick force of his chakra and the stopped points opened up to work as new. He flexed his arm once and then let it hang at his side. "Ty Lee, why did you come for me? Be honest."

For once in her life she closed off her ability to see auras and stared deep into his eyes. Loneliness was what she saw. His aura never showed that. Curiosity flickered behind the gaze of loneliness, faint, but there. He was asking for an honest answer and depending on the answer she knew that she would get something in return. Whether it was death for the wrong answer or an answer to her questions was unknown to her.

She looked away. "I wanted answers because I was confused about what I was reading and what I had seen your aura do," she said softly. Naruto inched closer to her and was back to kneeling in front of her. She had collapsed back onto the makeshift bed and kept her head down. "I wanted to believe that you were some sort of Spirit that had come to help us end the war, whether through destroying our people and trying to restore balance or destroy our enemies." She shrugged. "But I started wanting to know why you were here and why you had the aura. Rehka said you were special. I didn't understand and still don't."

Ty Lee raised her head cautiously. Her eyes flickered to his and she looked away again as if she were ashamed by her words.

"I wanted to know what you were. I thought you were a puzzle meant to be solved and I wanted to be the one to solve you. A person can't project an aura like that, not without something having once been rooted to them." She thought about Zentrai's aura for a moment and then continued. "So when I saw your aura I was rather confused by it and wanted to know more about it. But as time went on and I started thinking about what Rehka said, I began to have another reason."

She licked her lips.

Naruto grasped one of her hands and she nearly yanked it back for fear of him tearing it apart.

"I can't be the man in that book, Ty Lee. I can't give you the ultimate protection that he gave to his friends and villagers. But I can give you something that will help you in the coming battle." He let go and leaned closer to her face. With only the slightest of hesitation his lips touched hers. She was thrown into shock for a moment, and then embraced it. It lasted only a second, but when he pulled back, she was blushed, looked vulnerable, and was pleading for him. "I can give you a reason to come back if you'll have me."

She looked him over for a moment and then smiled. "Is this a dream?" He laughed and pinched her. "Ouch!" She slapped his hand and rubbed her wrist. Realization hit a moment later. _It's not a dream. _

Naruto was still looking at her, but a smile was on his face. She licked her lips and smiled, both hands eagerly running down to remove her shirt. Naruto stepped back and began removing his clothes. By the time he had his belt and first shirt off she had already removed her top clothing and was working on her pants. Her breasts dangled down in front of him and for once he was tempted to reach out and grab them. He got out of his clothes and walked over to her.

She stood up straight, her eyes scanning his form. Naruto didn't have a single scratch on him. No hard won battle scars. No bruises. No marking of any kind that would be present from wearing heavy armor or carrying heavy weapons. Assassins traveled light for sure, but not _that _light. Markings were evident on Zentrai and Lyra. Even she had markings from the times she had searched for him with a weapon strapped to her somewhere. But he had nothing.

Naruto closed the gap and touched the side of her face. She smiled and leaned up to him. Their lips met and she lost track of time. The flood gate opened and their hands roamed over each other. No part of their body wasn't explored. Their lips locked in a battle to outlast the other, both seeking dominance and relishing the taste of each other. Ty Lee was the first to pull away, nearly breathless and flushed faced. She gasped greedily for air before Naruto gently eased her down on the bed.

She whimpered slightly as he ran a hand from her mouth-which she had playfully sucked on-and down over her body. He ran it over her breast, over her naval, and stopped short before going any lower as her face became mild worry. He felt hair but laughed at her worried expression. His finger slid down and in and she moaned slightly. Stifling her voice would prove useless. Zentrai would know what happened and had instigated this in more than one way. Plus Lyra possibly had a hand in it as well, along with Calamity. Naruto wouldn't put it past them. Pacify him now and threaten him later would be the ultimate motive for Calamity.

With one finger already inside her he carefully began to pull it in and out, getting a small collection of moans from her. One hand cupped her breast while the other ran down to his hand that was teasing her. She didn't whimper when he inserted two fingers and began moving it faster. She tried her best to do something helpful, but nothing came to mind. This was a dream basically come true for her. She was getting attention from the guy she chased and soon developed feelings for.

Naruto slowly pulled his fingers out and spread her legs. She watched as he put himself on top of her. She felt his tip at her opening and braced for pain. Her older sister had said it hurt. She didn't feel any pain as he got inside her. She yelped in shock when he began to thrust it back and forth inside her. But her yelp turned to a low main and before long she was being thrust into. She rung her arms around his neck and lifted herself slightly. She threw her head back as he pounded into her.

She felt electricity spark throughout her entire body. Fire built inside her and she felt hot. She gasped for air as she felt her body heat up and grew exhausted from the slight motion she was able to offer. It was difficult for her to understand what she was truly feeling. Her mind was blank with ecstasy. She scanned his aura and marveled slightly as it radiated passion. Her head lolled back and her eyes closed tightly. She felt her body tense and pain slice through her as he sped up.

Ty Lee let go and dropped like a stone. One hand came to her mouth in an attempt to stifle her scream as her body reached its limit; the other went down to message herself as he continued to thrust into her. In mere moments he was spent and stopped, his body firmly pressed against hers. She could feel him and his seed inside her. She didn't push on her body or even breathe as he pulled out. Her hand went down to cover herself as if she were trying to stop blood from leaking from a wound. She rolled over as he did the same and stared directly into his eyes as she curled into the fetal position.

Naruto smiled at her ran a hand over her check. She was covered in sweat. "Come back to me… and I promise I'll come back to you when this is over, Ty Lee." She nodded slowly and dozed off. She was spent. Naruto leaned forward, grabbed the blanket, and pulled it over their forms. He crept over to the other side of her tiny frame and nestled himself up against and fell asleep. For once in his life he was truly happy.

(-)

"Another waste," Aang declared as Avatar Yangchen faded away.

Things weren't going well for him. He was trying to find an answer on how to deal with Ozai. It was funny to him when each Avatar left to him because he wanted them to offer their wisdom on a way to _stop_, _deal with_, or even _disable _Ozai, but all they talked about was needless sacrifice of his own life for the greater good of humanity and the world or doing whatever it took to insure justice was delivered. They wanted him to basically kill Ozai. He didn't want to do. It went against all his ethics and teachings he underwent from his teachers.

But what was he supposed to expect? They were older than him. They had been greater Avatars' than he had been so far. None of them really seemed to deal with any war like what he was dealing. Kyoshi had dealt with it, but from his perspective she hadn't actually killed her enemy. He simply fell to his own death because he was too stubborn to get out of the way. And they hadn't fought battles at the age of thirteen. He wasn't even a young adult and they were expecting him to kill someone. That just didn't sit well with him either.

He ran through the inner depths of his mind for someone that might be able to help him.

He found what he needed and pulled the person from the inner depths of his mind to the forefront. He breathed deep and exhaled releasing the energy needed to get the Avatar form. Though the form was blue and white because of the collected energy of the Avatar State he could tell that it was a dark skinned female with scars under her eyes, short cropped hair, and monk clothing with armor over her form. A trident rested in her lap with a braided rope to allow it to be carried on her back.

"I am Avatar Misa, young Air Nomad."

"Avatar Misa, I need you wisdom."

"What is your problem, young Air Nomad?"

"The world is unbalanced and the Fire Lord is on his way to burn down the Earth Kingdom. I need to know what you would do."

"I would kill him."

Aang sighed. How many were actually going to say that to him? He was just a child.

Misa continued. "I grew up during a war, young Air Nomad. I knew only war and death. I was trained in secret by those not loyal to our enemies and raised to kill them. I find that cutting the head off a large driving force caused doubt in their ranks and makes them turn on each other as they all pull and strive for power that was never theirs. If you want to end the war, cut off the head of the beast and they will tear themselves apart with time."

"So just kill him? That's your answer? No life long story about peace and good times? Just kill him and be done with it?"

She stared at him. "You didn't grow up during war. I died fighting for the cause and the Avatar after me finished what I tried to finish. The Avatar before me saw the beginning of the war. I saw the middle and only knew death. The Avatar after me was the one to end the war. My time was seen as a failure for the blood that was shed and the fact that I died trying to save everyone. My heart was simply not in it to allow me to survive. I cared too deeply for those around me, and fell on my own sword so to say."

Now Aang felt bad. He understood the moral of what she was getting at. Her heart had killed her. No doubt he desire to do her duty had been the cause of death for her, most likely caused by trying to end the fighting and ending up dead as a result. But somehow he didn't feel like that was the real reason.

She vanished like a rolling cloud and left him deep in thought. He needed another option. Killing directly was something he had never done. He knew he had killed, but he had never seen it or known he had directly done it. A part of him knew he had done it, but he never chose to accept it fully at the time.

"I'm going to have to do it, huh? I'm going to have to kill the Fire Lord."

Aang ran a hand over his bald head and decided to turn in for the night. No point in staying up worrying about it.

(-)

"How long does this tunnel go?"

Kar stopped and thought about that. That was a good question. Ba Sing Se's underground tunnel network was large. It was so large in fact that it had originally been used as a city for people before they moved above ground and built the famous city. It honeycombed with labyrinths that lead either nowhere or back to where you started. Larger parts were constructed into small cities, shops, and homes for people to live. And exploring the place was too time consuming. If you didn't want to be found in Ba Sing Se or anywhere else this was the place to hide.

"Not sure," Kar lied. Secrecy was the key here. They were using what surviving force remained from the Earth Kingdom Soldiers to get the job down.

They weren't lucky in the fact that they couldn't get a guide down here. Not many people used this place anymore with the exception of the Dai Li and they weren't exactly on the board for wanting to help. They were still a major unknown to everyone. No one had seen or heard from them since their last appearance helping Azula attempt to fight and beat the Avatar during the Invasion. So they had no idea on where they were or where they stood at the moment. If they were an enemy they'd get taken out. And if they were on the fighting side to bring down the Fire Lord than they'd still get taken out. They'd just use them before disposing of them. Disloyal people were never to be trusted.

They kept moving and focused on the task at hand. It was relatively simple. Kar and what Earthbenders that they could find were to dig directly behind the final wall. They weren't to touch the wall, just the ground beneath the wall. They were going to make an attempt at taking the earth out from under the soldiers' feet that were behind this wall in general. Such a task was not impossible, but rather, impractical and open to a thousand problems. But Calamity was certain that this would work. He was so certain that this would work that he was willing to put his own life on the line. If this failed he would gladly allow them to kill him for a wasted effort.

Kar knew better than to believe that Calamity would actually let himself fall for such a thing. He risked everything dozens of times in the past and always came out on top. He was their miracle worker. If he believed it could be done than he was all for it. But the task was not as easy as it sounded.

Kar had scrounged up a hundred Earthbenders and twenty Waterbenders for this. They were to weaken the ceiling of the caves and bring the ground down in sections. It wasn't an easy task and they had been working on it for weeks in secret. Kar was tasked with providing security, but when he was forced to return home he would leave that to Topaz and her squad. They never said anything to him about problems and that was what worried him greatly.

Glancing over his shoulder, he spied Topaz walking casually behind him. He wasn't put off by it. She was powerful in her own right and always carried the aura of authority and calculation. He feared her just about as much as he feared Naruto and Lyra. Zentrai was the one person he didn't truly fear. Not because Zentrai and him weren't close, but because he wasn't someone he thought he should be frighten of. That always struck him odd that of all the people he feared Zentrai wasn't among them.

He glanced back ahead and ran for the next large crystal for cover. Two guards were standing in the distance.

_That makes eight teams. _

Kar considered taking them out, but thought better of it. Because of the importance of Ba Sing Se, Fire Lord Ozai had set most of his troops here after the Invasion. His reason had been simple. They were to raid the underground catacombs of Ba Sing Se for jewels, money, resources, and to ensure that no factions remained in hiding underground. Kar couldn't blame the guy for doing it. Most castles or palaces were built over a large catacomb of some kind to store treasure, act as a means to escape, and house weapons.

Topaz had reported to finding two vaults while she was on patrol, one of which had been torn open and raided. The other was left untouched. It clearly hadn't been found by the enemy yet. And Kar was under no orders to raid the vault either. But he hadn't been denied it either. So after it was opened and checked they raided it. Ba Sing Se would believe that the Fire Nation did and they would be in the clear. What money, jewels, and weapons it contained were taken to the Nameless Village for safe keeping and to be put to good use. Rehka, as a token of appreciation, gave him a free night with two of her girls. He turned them down for the time being because he wanted to complete his missions first and then come back for a fun night. She agreed to that.

Kar glanced back over his shoulder. Topaz had taken cover and was staring at him. He was in charge of this mission.

He motioned for her to back off. She nodded and began to depart. He watched them carefully as the two guards talked about something before turning. Topaz got away. He was trapped.

"…they'll try anything?"

"Doubt it."

He could hear them now. The sound of their feet crunching the gravel as they walked grew louder. He reached for his weapon, thought better of it. The very motion might attract their attention. He could get to it if they saw him though. And he could get it out before they could do anything.

The guards stopped. He held his breath. There was a grunt of pain followed by a spray of blood that rained down on him. When he glanced over the edge of the large crystal, Reaper was standing over him, her large scythe in hand and two dead guards at her feet.

"What are you doing down on the ground?"

He sighed and got to his feet. He didn't mind the blood on his face. He wore a mask. "I was scouting out for possible enemies. There are seven more teams of two up in the higher sections of the tunnels. I wanted to find them and deal with them only when they became a threat." He gave her a hard glare before noticing Smellerbee and Longshot with Hawkeye hanging back. "Long time no see. I'd love to stay and chat but we have a schedule to keep."

Kar grabbed one of the dead and began dragging him off. Hawkeye grabbed the other and began their return to where the work was being down. The bodies were dumped in the water without care. Once they had wrapped up the area of its guards they continued to watch the workers do their job. Kar did feel slightly bad for them. Years of hard work had been put into the Inner Ring of the city and now they were going to bring a piece of it down in order to get the jump on the enemy. That seemed almost wrong to let it go to such a waste.

Kar gave one final look at the roof as they benders finished up what they were doing before heading out to continue his rounds. A large hole had been ripped into the ceiling of the cave and support pillars put in place to hold it up. When the time was right a few lone Earthbenders would stay behind to bring them down along with the roof of the cave. Those poor souls would be the ones to sacrifice themselves most likely. And somehow Kar knew that they knew that as well, along with Calamity.

(-)

Ozai looked ahead with a blank expression. Thoughts not his own raced through his mind. He wanted to kill his daughter but he had no idea on why. Were these the thoughts that she had been subjected to during her torture? He had no idea. Did he actually have that kind of bond with his daughter like what some parents spoke about? No. He didn't have that kind of bond with his daughter. It was nothing but a fable tale for parents that had lost their children and believed that they would return.

He dismissed the stray thoughts and looked forward towards his destiny.

The soldiers that had stayed home were all lined up to watch him in his moment of glory. The largest of his ships were located at the end of the harbor where he was making his way while the quiet masses that watched him go. They were poised, determined, and proud. They had a right to be. He was about to become the new ruler of the world and they were bearing witness to it. Never in his wildest dreams did he foresee this day coming. The Fire Nation would not only win this war but they would also have a new place in the world. It was a great day.

Ozai's palanquin was brought to a hold in front of the grand stairs that would take him to his ship and his new armor. Such a glorious day.

The Fire Lord stepped off his palanquin and moved towards the stairs.

"I'm sorry, Father!" A voice echoed from behind him. He hadn't remembered that in a crowd from this spot a voice could echo. "Palanquin bearers are so hard to come by these days."

Ozai slowly turned to face his daughter, curiosity flickering in his eyes as he looked down on her. He had already ascended to the third step and with her bowing before him he had no other choice.

Azula had recovered from her wounds or at least as far as he could tell with her clothes and armor on. No bruises were shown on her face. Not a mark or scratch. He was pleased with the healers but he knew that this was all the work of the makeup specialist he had for his daughter.

"So are we going to finally go burn down the Earth Kingdom?"

"I've decided to lead the Airship Fleet alone." He turned his back to her.

"What? But it was my idea!"

"Azula, silence yourself!"

"No! You can't treat me this way! You can't treat me like Zuko!"

"Azula!" Somehow that got her to be quiet. He licked his lips in thought. The thought of killing her crossed his mind. Why did he want to kill her? Where were these thoughts coming from? "I have decided to in trust the Fire Nation to you in my absence. From this moment on, you will be the new ruler of the Fire Nation."

A look of shock crossed her face. She was shocked for sure, but confusion soon replaced it. "What about you?"

"Fire Lord Ozai is no more." He walked up the steps with a slow deliberate motion. He thought some more on what he was doing. He was throwing away his title to the Fire Nation. He was giving it to the most loyal person in his family. But it felt wrong. "Just as the world will be reborn, so too will I be reborn from the ashes as the new supreme ruler of the world. From this moment on," he raised his hand while two guards placed his golden armor over his form, "I shall be known as the Phoenix King!"

New flags were erected, each bearing the emblem of a fiery bird. The men on the boat stood next to a large pot with a long pole sticking from it with three opening at the side. It took two Imperial Firebenders with all their Firebending power to reach the top and spit the flames out in three arcs.

Azula stood up, marveling at the sight. Her father looked heroic. He looked divine even.

"_I love you, Azula." _Those words came back to her. Who had said those things to her? _"I love you, Azula." _She shook her head and stared at her father for a moment. Did he love her? He was turning her away again. _"I love you, Azula."_

Azula recoiled at a distance memory of a woman scolding her flashed through her mind. The last time she was scolded by a woman seemed not so long ago. She didn't know why that suddenly came to mind, but the fact that her father was turning his back on her, even if he was leaving the Nation in her hands, seemed to be an act of betrayal on his part.

As her father boarded the boat, she departed for her destiny.

(-)

The first thing Naruto saw when he awoke was white. Ty Lee's hair covered his face and he smiled as the memory of what they did came rushing back.

He nudged her slightly and he felt her tense on top of him. Naruto smiled as he watched her sit up on top of him, a sly smile forming on her face. She didn't seem embarrassed about what they had done. But the flushed cheeks seemed to tell otherwise. Naruto wouldn't complain about it either.

"Good morning," he said with a smile. She blushed and covered her chest with one arm. He removed it with care and sat up to kiss her. She tensed again but drew into it. The kiss was long and rough and passionate. They pulled back and the blond smiled at her. "We need to get around. Can't be seen in here at this hour of the day."

Ty Lee nodded mutely and got off him with the blanket wrapped around her delicate frame. Naruto got up and flashed her a big smile as he worked his way into his pants. He was halfway into putting his belt on when she got her pants on and began tucking her shirt into it. He considered the irony of her clothing. White clothing with white hair. That seemed to stand out. But then again he wore all white as well. _Not much for the Assassin clothing I would have thought about originally when I was younger. _He got into his boots and thought about the irony of that as well.

Once they were fully dressed they moved outside where Zentrai was waiting for them.

"_Have fun last night?"_

"Does it matter?"

"_Are you finally dating?"_

"What's it to you?"

"_You're dating, aren't you? You're not me, Naruto. You don't sleep with people unless forced or intend to date. So are you dating or not?"_

"We slept together."

The mute flashed him a smile. _"So does that mean I can finally sleep with her since you're dating here?"_

"We're not dating. And no. She's just a… Fuck Friend!"

Ty Lee made a face at the choice of words. She understood why Naruto would say that. Zentrai was his best friend, loyal commander, and even the most feared Assassin out there. And if Zentrai ever decided to betray Naruto, he'd go straight for her to get to him. There was also the small fact that he had made it clear that he wanted to fuck her once she was dating him just for the sheer sake of doing it with her like that.

"_That's close enough. Ty Lee, drop your pants."_

"Ignore that."

"_Are you questioning my authority?"_

"I'm stopping your perverted sense of reason."

"_Same damn thing."_

"No it's not."

"_Ty Lee, take of your shirt."_

"Don't do it, Ty Lee. He just wants sex."

"_Yeah. You blame me? She's hot. And I did set you two up."_

"No you didn't. Ty Lee, don't do anything he says that has sex in it."

The mute shrugged. _"Ty Lee, take of your shirt."_

"Why?" she finally asked.

"_Paizuri," _he declared with certainty.

"No." Naruto snapped.

"_It doesn't have the word _sex _in it."_

The blond Assassin glowered down on his friend. "No."

"_You're no fun at-"_

Naruto and Zentrai both turned and faced the tent that Sokka was in. Zentrai had felt it first. A fight was already in motion and he hadn't detected it until now.

Sokka's tent fell down and two figures were shown fighting inside. It was sliced apart by a black sword and Ghost came flying out with two daggers in hand. A wicked grin was on his face as Sokka stepped out, a long cut across his right cheek. It bled down his face and he huffed angrily.

Naruto moved to stop but Zentrai grabbed his arm to stop him. He resisted for a moment before finally seeing it. Sokka was truly trying to kill Ghost. _At least someone is making a real effort. _

Sokka lunged forward and swung for Ghost's head. Ghost ducked under, laughing as he tried to stab him in the gut. Sokka jumped back, deflected the blow, and raised his sword to defend from the next attack. Ghost laughed and threw one of the daggers. Sokka knocked it away and charged. Ghost cackled with laughter as he yanked the hand that threw the dagger back. Sokka's eyes went wide. He dropped to the ground and barely missed getting cut by the dagger as it made a return trip for the laughing Assassin.

Ghost ran at the Warrior with his two daggers. Sokka was slow to rise but managed to avoid Ghost's pounce. He rolled backwards, sprang up to his feet, staggered backwards two paces and then righted himself. Ghost grew a sickening grin as he produced a small chain with a double bladed sickle on the end of it.

The Water Tribe Warrior stared at it for a moment as Ghost began to happily spin it around and around before throwing it straight at him. Sokka sidestepped it and turned to slice the chain in two. Ghost yanked back on it and the chain wrapped around the blade. Sokka cursed as his sword was yanked from his hands and the bladed chain weapon came rushing back to cut his arms off. Sokka yanked his hands back in the nick of time.

Ghost caught Sokka's weapon and threw it at him. Sokka ducked back to avoid it. He fell backwards and rolled while watching the weapon of his choice fly over his head and into a tree twenty meters behind him. Ghost rushed him at that moment.

Sokka turned back and took a fist to the face. He grunted as blood gushed from his nose and stumbled backwards. Ghost laughed and struck him again, this time using the metal bar to his weapon to hit him in the side of the head. Sokka screamed as his vision began to grow dark.

Ghost raised the weapon and brought it down on Sokka. Sokka stumbled forward and tackled him off balance before the blow could land. Ghost roared with annoyance as he hit the ground. Sokka sat up on top of him and punched the man in the face. His head went to one side then the other as Sokka hit him with a left hook then a right and then another left.

Ghost screamed and placed both hands on Sokka's chest. He gave him a bloody smile. Sokka rolled backwards to get away. Twin daggers cut out of Ghost's wrists just barely missing their target. Sokka got to his feet and rushed him again only to be kicked in the gut by the Rank Ten Assassin. He doubled over on his leg and grabbed it in an attempt to stay upright. Ghost brought his leg back and hit him in the head, dropping him like a stone.

With the chain weapon in hand, he raised it over his head for a killing blow.

"Enough!"

Ghost brought it down and stared strangely at the sword that had halted his kill. Blindside stood over Sokka with his Sakabatō blocking the weapon. His eyes were narrowed and bore no remorse.

"Stand down. Or I will kill you where you stand." His voice was cold and detached.

Ghost snarled. "Don't get in my way, pretty boy!" He raised his weapon to strike down Blindside. The swordsman grunted as he blocked Ghost's hard strike with one hand gripping the sword. "You're so damn annoying! Out of my way!"

"This is your last warning. Stand down or be killed."

Ghost roared as he put all of his strength into forcing the weapon down on Blindside's head. Blindside gave a grunt of annoyance as he effortlessly moved the weapon away from him and kicked the Rank Ten Assassin in the side.

By now the entire camp was alerted to the commotion and came running out.

"What's going on out here?" Iroh made his presence known with his nephew right beside him.

Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee were at a loss for words until Piandao showed up again. At night they hadn't seen Blindside to well so they had no idea that he was truly here, but seeing Piandao confirmed a few things for them. It explained how Sokka had such an elegant sword. But now it made perfect since why the famed Shin the Shadow Blade was out of the Nation so much.

"Is that really, Shin?" Mai asked quietly.

Naruto gave her a hard look that shut her up.

Ghost groaned as Blindside began to walk towards him.

Sokka got to his feet and charged. Blindside turned with lightning reflexes and smashed the sword into Sokka's stomach. He doubled over and collapsed when the pommel was brought down on his head. Ghost used that moment to attack. And again with lighting reflexes he struck him down. Ghost stood for a moment then collapsed as his world went dark.

Blindside gave them both a quick look over before sheathing his sword.

"Take Ghost to his quarters. Have Sokka detained for the time being." He gave a nod to Zentrai. As much as he didn't want to, he had to allow the order until they could figure out what happened. Most likely it was Ghost that started it. Crimes would be brought upon him if that was the case. "Have their wounds treated. They aren't serious."

Blindside walked over to Piandao and motioned with his head to follow. Piandao bowed respectfully to the others before parting. Zentrai gave an annoyed sigh as he checked the minds of everyone. The Order of the White Lotus was blaming them for the fiasco. Not that he could blame them. Ghost was a loose cannon.

"_Have Ghost detained as well. When he awakens alert me. I need to speak with him." _The man taking Ghost away nodded. _"It's time to send out some scouts again. The team that just returned reported that nothing was out of the ordinary. I don't buy that."_

Naruto nodded and turned to leave.

"_I'm not sending you." _Zentrai jerked a chin in the direction of Blink and Inferno. _"Scout out the area with whomever else you want. Small team. Travel light. Spot anyone. Kill them." _The two nodded and trotted off to find some able bodies for the scouting party. To Naruto he said,_ "We have things to discuss with Iroh and Zuko."_

"Understood." Naruto gave Ty Lee a smile and told her to go find something to eat. Mai followed, eager to learn what had happened after they had split last night. Naruto watched her go and for the first time wanted to never let her leave his sight. He turned back to his friend and followed. "Thanks for always being the hardass I could never be."

Zentrai laughed.

(-)

After two interrogations and a brief but very hostile apology things were calmed down enough for everyone to continue without casting hostile looks at anyone else. For Naruto, Zentrai, Lyra, and the Avatar gang they were left to speak with Iroh on a plan of action. They had come here to in list his help in bringing down Ozai. Sadly that didn't go too well and they were left with no other choice than to abandon the idea.

"So now what?" Toph asked. "If Iroh is leading the Order of the White Lotus to take back Ba Sing Se, what are we going to do? We have to take out the Fire Lord."

All eyes turned on Zentrai. The mute sighed. Katara and Zuko already had their role to play. The others hadn't found out where theirs was yet.

"What do you think you should do?" Iroh asked carefully.

Sokka cupped his chin in thought. "I think that we should do whatever it takes to stop that Airship Fleet. That way we'll be there to help Aang take out the Fire Lord if he needs us."

Iroh flashed him his patient smile and began eating again.

"Will you three be coming with us?" Sokka asked.

"_No," _Zentrai told him quickly. Concern washed over each of them. _"Lyra will be joining you, but we won't. Naruto and I must return to the Fire Nation to take back Azula. She escaped our clutches once. It shall not happen again."_

"You're going to take my sister? Why?" Zuko questioned.

"_In the state of mind she is in she will do things without reason or remorse in more ways than you could imagine. She can't be killed because of her power. And we do have rights to her. Isn't that right, Iroh? You did say we could have her not too long ago. So will you keep your word or won't you?"_

Iroh nodded. Zuko had nothing to say on the matter. His annoyance was easily noticed and it was clear that while he wanted to argue the point, but decided to leave it for another date.

"_Lyra will be going with you, but make no promises that she won't be protecting you unless she feels the need to. We have to take out the Airship Fleet, take back Ba Sing Se, take back Azula, and kill the Fire Lord. Our mission is to get this done as quickly as possible. Anyone who lags behind will stay behind. So don't expect her to hold your hand for this."_

"Do we look like a bunch of kids?"

Naruto chuckled. "Sokka's got you there, Zentrai."

The mute grumbled in annoyance as Lyra began chuckling.

"So we'll take out the fleet," Toph said sharply. "But where is it?"

"Piandao knows the location. His sources are deeper than ours." Lyra gave Toph a look that made her stiffen before looking away. It was clearly a lie but no one was going to call it. "So go speak with him. He'll give you a way to reach the spot as well. I would suggest that you go speak with him right now."

Sokka, Suki, Toph, and Hakoda departed to go speak with Piandao. Lyra remained behind for a few minutes before heading out as well.

"_We should start moving as well, Zuko." _Zentrai stood up and sighed explosively as three men arrived carrying gear for Naruto and Zentrai. _"Thanks," _he told them.

The men nodded and walked off.

Naruto reached down and began going through them. He checked them before strapping pouches to his thighs and belt. He grabbed several slightly longer kunai and strapped them to the small of his back and over his chest with the handle pointed down. He flexed his clawed gauntlets and strapped two more to his forearm over the gauntlet.

"_Got enough stuff," _Zentrai inquired. Naruto flashed him an annoyed expression as he rose up. Zentrai had his two weapon casings strapped to his back in the usual formation. _"You ready for this?" _

The former Jinchuuriki licked his teeth in thought before nodding. It was time to take out the Fire Nation and finally win the war.

With nothing else to say they jumped on Appa and took off with Zuko and Katara after Toph, Sokka, and Suki jumped on a Giant Eel Hound and gave them a nod. Lyra and Hakoda rode on their own Giant Eel Hound.

(-)

The island was moving.

Aang thought it strange that the island was moving. Islands don't move unless someone was using bending on them. But he wasn't using his bending on it. So that ruled out the idea of this being a natural island which only left a few other choices for what it could be.

Aang moved fast and jumped off the side of the island, diving headfirst into the water. Pain sliced into his head as the water struck him, but he ignored it and began swimming down deeper until a heavy force shoved him away. He rolled twice before righting himself and saw a large paw slice through the water.

Aang swam backwards and then went for the surface. He gasped greedily for air as he did and saw Momo perched on a tree branch with a questionable expression on his face. He smiled at his pet and then dove back into the water to head for the face of the creature. When he reached it a large eyelid opened up and he saw his reflection in it.

A large paw rose up from beneath to bring him to the surface. The force of the motion weighed down on him and it took all his strength to remain upright until he hit the water. He gasped for air and nearly collapsed to his knees. He fought off the urge and looked into the large eyes of the animal that was the moving island.

"A Lion Turtle." Aang warily stood before the large ancient beast and stared directly into its eyes. "Maybe you can help me. Everyone, even my own past lives, are expecting me to end someone's life. But I don't know if I can do it."

"_**The true mind can weather all the lies and illusion without being lost. The true heart can tough the poison of hatred without being lost. Since the beginning of time darkness has thrived in the void, but always yields to purifying light." **_It raised the other paw and with two clawed fingers touched Aang's heart and head. Energy flowed through him. As the process was ended it pulled its paw back almost too quickly for it to have been an accident and stared at him intently. _**"A being of energy that is not for bending has touched you." **_

Aang blinked. "What do you mean?"

"_**Long ago, we bend not the elements, but our own energies inside ourselves. That time has come and gone. But you have been touched by one." **_

Aang thought about it for a moment. He couldn't think of anyone other than Naruto since he did that weird magic with his energy to make copies of himself. Was that what it was referring too? "I don't understand what you mean, but if you'd like, when this war is over, and if my friends survive, I will gladly bring them to you to see if any of them are the cause."

Aang watched as it thought about it. The Lion Turtle tilted its head to the side for a moment and thought about it. _**"Very well. Bring them to me when this is over." **_

The land approached and Aang was lifted to the mountain side on the finger of the ancient beast.

"_**Wait for him. He will come." **_

Aang watched with sad eyes as the ancient Lion Turtle parted, leaving him and Momo to their lonesome. With a deep breath he moved to the see of mountains and watched the sky for the Fire Lord. This was where he would start his rain of fire. This was where he would stop him. Aang balled his hand into a fist and made up his mind. He was going to take down the Fire Lord by any means necessary.


	32. Chapter 32

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this.

From the minds of Myevltwin and TheHumanWiki.

Chapter 32

Toph looked straight ahead with concern flashing in her eyes. Being blind meant she couldn't see but that didn't mean she couldn't look the part of being confused when she needed to or how to look concerned. She was worried. They were going into battle against an entire army of Fire Nation soldiers that would soon have unfathomable power that would make them near invincible. And all they had their favor was the element of surprise and a small team. A small team of five against an entire army of super power Firebenders.

She yawned and decided to not think much on it. How could she not though? This was insane even by her understanding. It was like this was the way she wanted to die. But the more she thought on it the more and more likely it seemed that she was going to die.

"Any plan yet?" Hakoda asked quietly.

Sokka looked straight ahead. He didn't understand why his father wanted to whisper. They were still half a day out before they would reach the land. So why was he whispering?

"Not yet. Still working on it," Sokka called back.

Hakoda let out a combination of a sigh and a grown. He wasn't one for these sorts of things. Give him the enemy composition, size, their ranks, lay of the land, and a few days and he could make something of it. Send him out into the unknown with a small rag tag team up against an unknown size force with superior firepower and technology and he was at a loss. This just wasn't the way he wanted to deal with things. It wasn't what he was used to.

Hakoda gave a quick glance to Lyra. She was the only one not concerned by any of this. She seemed to be thinking about something else rather than the approaching doom they were more than likely about the face. If at anything she seemed to be reflecting on something if he was looking at her right. He wondered just how many times she had been sent into dangerous situation like this where the chance of coming out alive was so slim that it didn't actually exist. Was she just so used to it that it was normal to her now? Or did she just hide it better than what she was letting on?

Hakoda decided to believe it was the later because he knew it would help him sleep better if he survived this. He hoped he survived this. He wanted to see his children have children of their own damn it. Didn't he deserve that right?

Time dragged on for them as they watched the night sky for any sign of the coming attack. It seemed so calm that it actually gave Suki pause to think about all the things in her life. She never had understood what was so important about never looking back. She looked back all the time.

"_It's never a good thing to look back," _Zentrai had once said to her.

Suki figured that for him it had a different meaning. Everyone who fought in the war was the same as the Assassins. They never stopped. They just fought battle after battle without pause. They always moved without stopping to consider what was going by them. That kind of life was hard for her to imagine, but for them it was the hardest thing to do. And the idea of the war ending for them was a hard thing for her think about. If the war ended and those that couldn't cope with what they had done lashed out it would result in yet another war or worse…

"Lyra," Toph called out. "Do you think we'll survive this?"

The one armed Earthbender shrugged. "Not sure."

"_Not sure_," Suki repeated. "What kind of answer is that? Don't you care that Toph is just a little kid?"

Lyra shrugged. "She shouldn't have gotten involved."

Silence followed. When Suki looked down to make sure Toph was alright, she seemed perfect enough with the knowledge of what was or wasn't to come. There was no hiding the fact that Toph looked up to Lyra as a bit of an old sister since she had none. And the idea of her saying things like that might put her down a bit. Everyone had always worried about her in their own little way because Toph was young. They learned to look past her blindness. It was that she was young that they truly worried for her.

Hours passed by in silence. When Hakoda was brave enough to talk, he was shaking his head as he said, "This mission really sucks."

No one saw any reason to argue the point.

(-)

Azula looked at herself in the mirror. She wasn't pretty anymore. She knew that. And she hated it. She wanted to be pretty again. She wanted to feel important and something else. Needed didn't sound right to here. She was already needed. Wanted didn't sound right to her either. She didn't know what she was lacking but she knew she was lacking something. And that something was eating her over.

Azula gave one last look at her reflection before dawning her robe and striding out of her chambers. She wanted to feel beautiful again. She needed to have a royal bath, hair combing, massage, and manicure. That would make her feel better. She just knew it.

The new Fire Lord walked quietly through the dark hallways. The first thing she had ordered was that most of the candles be removed or simply not lit. One person questioned and was instantly killed for the question. She did end up answering his question in the end by stating that she felt safer in the dark. No one dared to question why she would feel safer in the dark, but it was answer in itself.

When she reached the first chamber and stared into the bright light, she cursed it and put out a dozen of the candles to darken the room. She called for some help and the servants appeared. One moved to lite a few candles and was hissed at by Azula. She stepped back from the first candle, bowed her head in apology and helped the others silently prepare a bath. Azula wasn't about to complain about the water not being ready for her. She had just decided this on the fly. No need to kill anyone. Not yet anyways.

The water was prepared in near record time and once ready she disrobed and sank deep into the water. A sigh escaped her lips and the servants began their work. They scrubbed her back in silence, washed her face softly, and began cleaning the rest of her body when one of them moved the wash cloth over her breast. She shot a fireball into the servants' chest, watched him drop without a sound and hissed at the others. "I'm not your fuck toy!" she screeched. Without thought she set the others ablaze as they looked her over when she rose to defend herself.

With the others dead she was left alone with a room of burning flesh. She snorted down on the dead not paying mind to the smell of burned flesh and realized her error. She wanted to look beautiful. She wanted to feel beautiful. But her servants were dead that had always washed her. So with them dead she had no one to wash her back or anywhere else for that matter. That, to her at least, was a bad thing. When she called for more servants and gave them their orders; one peeled off, ordered two guards to remove the dead, and then was killed for giving an order she hadn't ordered him to give.

The guards walked in, asked to remove the dead, and were granted that right. With the dead being dragged off, she took her time to look down at the new servants that would be washing her back. They were men. They weren't attractive, but she knew that they were loyal and they were probably very eager to please. And somehow, on a level she didn't really understand, wanted them to wash her. She needed _them _to wash her back. It was usually the female servants that washed her back. Now she was having the males do it. That sat well with her.

When the new servants began to wash her she thought back on how things were changing for her. Her father was already gone, off somewhere she didn't know about and leaving her in charge as the new Fire Lord. The entire army of the Fire Nation was under her control. And she could do whatever she wanted with the outer colonies as far as her father was concerned. She really wanted this position in life but now that she got her she really didn't know what to do or make of it.

"Bring me my advisors," she ordered. One of the servants nodded and left without a word. She waited two minutes before Li and Lo appeared. They didn't dare say anything to her as they watched the men scrub Azula clean. "I want an update on the outer colonies in the Earth Kingdom."

"What sort of update?"

Azula didn't know which one was which but that didn't stop her from looking at and calling out a name. "Do you dare question me, Li?" They shook their heads. "I want to know what they're doing at the moment."

"At the moment?"

Fire flared from Azula's nostrils.

The two gave each other a quick glance before deciding it was best to please her even with a lie. "The colonies are doing great. Nothing has changed since the last report. They are currently in the middle of harvesting their crops for us so…"

"Kill them. They haven't gotten it ready yet and they must be taught a lesson. I will not have tardiness while I am Fire Lord."

Li and Lo had a silent conversation and nodded in agreement. "Very well, Princess. We'll see to it."

"Fire Lord," she corrected.

"Not until your coronation in two hours, Princess. We have orders not to call you that until you have been crowned during your coronation."

Azula bit back a retort. They were right of course. But that didn't mean she was happy with it.

Azula waved them off and stood up once they were gone. The men looked uneasy but she didn't care. It felt better to have them around than females' onlookers anyways.

"Well?" she hissed. "What are you standing around for? Dress me."

The men moved hastily to dress her in her robes and once done were sent out. The only thing she needed now was to visit the servants that would do her hair and give her a manicure.

(-)

"Do you think they'll just let us in?" Katara asked with a sense of humor in her voice.

Trying to lighten the mood was a good thing but not now. Naruto was trying so hard to focus on what he was about to do that it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to not turn around a throttle Katara. He couldn't blame her. She was nervous. She wasn't used to going up against an entire army with no backup and only three other teammates. To her this had to be insane. No one would dare blame her either.

Zentrai leaned forward, staring out ahead as they passed by the ruins of a dozen homes. _"Zuko, please go to great lengths to minimize the damage to your sister. We would prefer to have her back in one piece, but if you feel as though you must remove a leg or arm please do so in a simple fashion."_

Zuko said nothing. He didn't want to believe that they were going to take his sister away and turn her into a breeding stock for Firebenders.

No one wanted to say anything for a while as they traveled in utter silence. No one wanted to admit to the growing fear of dying on this mission. As important as it was, for Katara it was nothing more than a chance for revenge. Zentrai did see it as such. For Naruto and himself it was just another mission that needed completing. Zuko saw it only as a chance to return to power and take what should be his and do things right. He wanted to replace the war with love and peace. It was time for peace.

"Do you think Aang is going to take out the Fire Lord?" Katara finally asked.

"No idea."

Zentrai stared at his friend and wondered what was going on inside his head. He didn't want to read his mind at the moment. It wasn't a spoken rule or command that Zentrai never read anyone's mind right before a large scale battle where the odds were totally not in their favor. But rather, it was something that Zentrai always felt like he had to do.

So instead of reading the mind of his friend he thought back to the happier days of his childhood. He wasn't happy with the memories. Most of his memories around his childhood were of him trying to get a hold on his power. Gen Fu had tried so hard to help him but in the end it was up to him only. No one could teach him out to use his power or rein it in. He spent years being cut down by his own power and insanity nibbling at the edges of his mind as he read the minds of everyone without being able to stop or filter them. Even his own thoughts were sent out to others if he didn't stop thinking.

Zentrai remembered the pain not just from being cut by his own blades when he tried to control them but also the pain of having so many people in his head as he read mind after mind. When Gen Fu had become aware of what he was and the trouble it caused him in public he was taken away from the major cities and that was when Lyra had joined them directly. And when Naruto had joined he was slowly reaching the peak of his control over his power.

Naruto had spent days with him trying to understand his power, but only because he didn't want to go through the same trouble he had gone through with Bumi and the guards. Zentrai's inability to control his power had caused Naruto to have to explain a bunch of things that soon began to grow irritating for him to explain over and over again. And after a dozen fights, all started by Zentrai as he read Naruto's mind and took offense to what he, or anyone for that matter, thought.

With only a few minds to read he was able to learn how to read the mind of anyone and shelter his mind from their thoughts. Insanity had stopped nibbling at the edges of his mind, but from time to time he could feel it happening. But the insanity that was being brought in was the war. All the people he killed and the people that had died under his watch or that he sent to their deaths nibbled away as well.

"_Fuel for the fire." _Naruto had told him.

Zentrai laughed inwardly as the blond placed a hand on his shoulder. _"Reflecting is all well and good, but let's not do that now."_

Zentrai nodded slowly, taking his friends' word to heart. _"I want to return to the forest when this is over, Naruto. I want to see _her _grave again. I haven't seen it in so long that I have almost forgotten her name again." _

The concern in Naruto's eyes was genuine. He understood what he wanted. It was the first woman he had ever loved and she was buried deep in a forest far from the Nameless Village in a part of the Earth Kingdom that no one could get to it.

"_Very well. If we survive this battle we'll go see her together. I promise you that."_

"_You don't have to come with me."_

"_That's true. But I would rather go to with you to ensure you don't do something foolish. And besides, I'm rather fond of that place myself. So going back might clear my mind and heart once all the fighting is done. I've got a lot of blood on my hands, Zentrai. More than one most might truly think about. So seeing her grave might cleanse my soul."_

Zentrai thought that ironic. Naruto didn't believe in such stupid things. The cleansing of a soul was just words to him. But he had no reason to argue with him at the moment.

Naruto walked towards Zuko and Katara and looked ahead between them. "How much further is it to the Capital?"

"An hour, perhaps." Zuko answered. "Why?"

"I'd like for you to drop me off at the entrance to the Capital. The same one we used at during the Invasion."

"That's crazy." Katara snapped. "Why would you want us to drop you off? You got a death wish or something?"

"Maybe. This way I can actually give you guys a fighting chance to get to Azula and take her down. You can bet that her guards will respond to any threat. So if I show up and start making a mess of the place they're bound to show up and try to stop me. In which case; you guys will have an easier time sneaking in with a ten ton magical bison."

"_Drop me off as well," _Zentrai ordered. _"But when you drop us off, wait fifteen minutes before trying to storm the place. Fly back up into the sky out of sight and wait until we have most of the soldiers trying to take us out. We'll work our way up to you guys at the Palace and help take Azula down. Besides, this way you guys don't have to deal with me and my orders while we try to capture Azula. You'll have plenty of chances to kill her and call it friendly-fire from the guards or something."_

Zuko stared at him and smiled. "Fine. But I'm not going to worry about you guys."

"Didn't think you would worry about us." Naruto gave his mute friend a big grin.

(-)

"This is bad for my aura."

Blindside gave Ty Lee a sideways glance as she finished drinking her antidote that was made by Zentrai. Once she was finished she dropped it and smashed it beneath her feet. Blindside remained quiet throughout the entire thing until Mai finished taking hers.

"You shouldn't say such things, White Soul." Ty Lee narrowed her eyes a little. "I will call you what I want. For me you are the White Soul. You wear all white. What other name would you prefer?"

She opened her mouth but shut it after a moment.

"But whether you respond or not is entire up to you, White One. However, be that as it may, you shouldn't say such things about your aura. Although I am incapable of seeing auras, I do have a basic understanding of it. Saying such things about an aura only makes it worst. So do not say anything bad about your own aura."

Ty Lee had little to say on the matter and turned away in disgust. His aura was blank just like Calamity's was but it sparked with a desire for protecting his pride from time to time. It was a hard thing to call with him.

Mai gave him a hard look. "Shin, why are you in the Assassins?"

His aura flashed in anger at the mention of his name but he answered nonetheless. "I'm a peace lover. I don't like violence without meaning. This war has no meaning to me. And I felt that it was in my best interest to help out in the war."

Mai stared at him for a moment and then said, "So you want to kill people to make things right?"

He nodded mutely.

"That's stupid."

"So is war. So who's the real stupid person here?"

"But you're a citizen of the Fire Nation. So who's the stupider one?"

"Who's the stupidest one for questioning the strongest man here that has orders to kill you if I see you defying our orders or doing something I don't like."

Blindside's left hand went to his two swords and she clamped up. Despite the fact that his swords were on the left side of his hip she wasn't about to question whether or not he could draw and used them effectively on her in the blink of an eye. He wasn't an Assassin for nothing.

Ty Lee sighed as she looked back ahead with Mai. They were part of the frontline fighting force. That was what Zentrai had told them. Ty Lee didn't see how there was a frontline when they were all making the charge to take back the city. Unless they had some sort of a fallback point where healers could tend to the wounded, they didn't have anything but a frontline group.

The sky turned red and Ty Lee watched as a dozen auras changed from a passive nature to a sensational lust as if a drug had just been introduced into their bodies. The comet had finally arrived and its power was filling the Firebenders with its power.

Iroh motioned for the Earthbenders to get to the front. Bumi and a dozen others did as they were told and summoned up a dozen platforms for everyone to stand on. The Assassins stood on their own platforms but kept their focus on the wall with cold eyes.

Mai wanted to turn around and leave right now but knew that if she did the poison would get her. And she didn't want to even think about what would happen if Zentrai died on his part of the mission. Shouldn't they have gone with him instead? Did he even think about that? How were they supposed to prove themselves to him if he was off doing his own thing and they were out here? Did he even think that one through or did he just not care?

"Get up here," Blink ordered. The two girls ran forward and stood between the metal behemoth that was Inferno. Blindside stood on the other side of Ty Lee with a few other Assassins hanging back behind them. "Keep your heads down and don't die." She advised.

"Thanks for the tip." Blink chuckled at the venom in Mai's voice.

Blindside grunted as he looked up at the sky. He was the ranking Assassin over the Assassins at the moment and that made him in charge. He hated the fact that he was in charge. It annoyed him. He wasn't someone that enjoyed taking charge of a large group of soldiers.

With a slow and deliberate motion he removed his Sakabatō and raised it to his face as if he was praying to it. The other Assassins lowered their heads or took a knee. As one they began their sacred prayer.

"Niga'toka Shi, lord of hunters and mother of blades, grant that my hands be steady and my mind sharp. Grant me aim that will remain true and never falter. Guide my feet with swift winds and warm shadows. Should the worst come to pass and I lay dead, grant me forgiveness for my times past."

Ty Lee and Mai looked around, lost in thought. They didn't understand any of what was just said. It was a prayer of some sort. That much they understood. But why they did it she had no idea.

When the prayer was over Blink gave her Ty Lee a quick look before glancing away as if ashamed to be near her. "Niga'toka Shi was a great Assassin from legend that transcended a God by the word of Shinigami for her skills. We pray to her to grant us forgiveness if fall in battle and kill a great many enemies that have done us wrong. Since you are the one joining us should you survive this, you will be ordered to remember and recite this sacred prayer of ours before you are finally recognized as an Assassin."

Ty Lee looked down at her feet. Sacred prayers were beyond her, but if Naruto recited it then she'd at least make the effort.

"And do survive this," Ghost snapped. "Naruto needs a good sex slave."

Ty Lee gave into her fear and panicked until Blindside placed a hand on her shoulder. "Fear him not. He's just a sexist and has no respect for anyone."

Ghost rolled his eyes.

Blindside gave a glance to Iroh as the old Firebender and former General began to take deep meditating breaths. Fire began to form a ring around his platform, rising when he inhaled and falling when he exhaled. No one dared to even speak as Iroh took deep breath after deep breath. His eyes snapped open and he pushed his hands forward as if he were to grab someone. The fire rained together and formed a ball of condensed fire the spiraled before shooting outwards for the wall. A torrent of flames more powerful than any normal form of Firebending rushed outwards and reduced a piece of the wall into a smoldering hole the size of a large house.

No one needed to be told what to do. The platforms jerked forward with uneasy bending. What Firebenders there were on each platform stepped forward and batted away any fireballs that were shot in their direction. Of course the Fire Nation soldiers knew that with Iroh and Inferno on the field they were severally outmatched but they still had to try and slow them down.

With a flick of the wrist the rest of the wall came crumbling down providing a gape the span of eight large houses and gave ample room for everyone to stream in. A wave of fire, water, and earth tore through the sky as they clashed at the hole in the wall.

Blindside stepped up and moved with liquid grace for the closes group of soldiers. He was in their squad before they had a chance to do anything. With a few quick swipes of his Sakabatō they were down for the count, each missing a head.

Inferno tanked everything for everyone. Firebenders stepped up to deal with the raging beast of metal as he thundered his way through the diminishing lines, taking hit after hit from their Firebending. Every now and then Blink, Geo, or any other Assassin with a long range skill would pop out and throw something at some of the soldiers, usually scoring a kill.

The soldiers were forced back but their tanks remained.

The opening spat a stream of fire at Inferno. He bellowed with rage and thundered in their direction. His massive wrist mounted sword snapped into place and was brought down into the hatch. A scream of pain erupted from within and fire spewed out through all the joints of the thing. Without pause he drug it across the hull and tore it out, cleaving a line of molten metal as he did. One tank down but many more remained. He screamed a battle cry and thundered after them, taking each one down with brutal efficiency.

Ty Lee froze as she watched the others pushed forward with brutal tenacity. They never stopped moving through the enemy ranks until they were given some breathing room.

"If you stop again," a voice snapped from behind. "I will kill you."

Ty Lee whipped around and stared at Answerer. She hefted her large sword and brought it to bear in the face of the young teen. Ty Lee stared down the length of the blade before nodding mutely.

The two charged into battle, picking up Mai as they went along.

(-)

Naruto glanced over the edge of the saddle and nodded. It was time.

"This is my stop," he declared. Zentrai stood up and looked down. "We're jumping. You guys don't have time to drop us off. Try not to die."

Zuko wanted to tell him off but decided it was better not to.

Naruto jumped over the edge and fell the hundred meters. He smashed down on top of a soldier that had been running for the main capital building. Whatever was going on out there was getting everyone's attention at the moment.

Zentrai landed and touched the side of his head. _"The guards are being sent to the Palace to stop someone. The guy wasn't sure who, but they were being ordered to stop someone."_

"_Probably us."_

"_No. It wasn't us. It was a female." _They shared a look. _"Azula. She must have lost control already. That's too soon unless Calamity didn't do something right."_

"_Something tells me it wasn't Calamity's doing. She probably finally snapped under the pressure. We didn't know that Ozai would make her the new Fire Lord when she got back. If you add the mental strain and now this she was bound to lose her mind."_

"_This means we need to get there now." _Soldiers streamed out of their hiding spots, took notice of them, and turned to fight. _"Don't stop for anything."_

Naruto grunted his acknowledgment and started running flat out. He tore through what soldiers he could before Zentrai downed them with a few well, placed throwing knives. Naruto gave out a shout and more guards peeled off from the fleeing forces to turn and engage them. They were all heading for the Palace.

Naruto didn't know why or care at the moment. He was just thankful that things weren't going to be as hard as he thought they would be.

"_At least we're getting a break for once," _Naruto thought. A loud scream echoed from up the volcano. Naruto and Zentrai paused to look at each other and blink. _"Do you hear that?"_

Zentrai nodded with a loud sigh of frustration.

(-)

Zuko disobeyed the order to stay hidden for five minutes. He couldn't say he blamed them. But he knew they wanted Azula. Some deep force beyond his control told him that if he didn't get moving now he'd never get to her in time. He didn't want to disobey for fear of them screaming at him or trying to kill him, but they were wanting his sister alive so to hell with them.

Katara looked over the edge and watched them tear through soldier after soldier before finally losing sight of them as they pulled away. She felt a bit of pain for them. They were sacrificing themselves to ensure that they got to the Palace and stopped Azula. That seemed so wrong.

"Stay focused," Zuko told her. She offered a hostile look. "Something tells me that we're going to be in serious trouble when we get there."

She wanted to snap at him but decided against it. His suspicion was right on. The Palace was on fire with more and more guards pouring in to try and deal with the flames or an attacker. Zuko didn't know or care at the moment. He only wanted to get to his sister and stop her before she grew out of control.

Appa growled and Zuko glanced down. Troops were moving dead soldiers and thought that was strange. What the hell were they fighting?

A loud scream that was so primal and full of hate had the two stared at each other in fear. "What is that noise?" Katara looked to Zuko for an answer.

"No idea."

Katara sighed and looked towards the burning city. She really didn't want to go down there now.

(-)

"We're so fucking fucked."

"No shit."

A ball of blue fire splashed down on them and roasted them inside their armor.

Azula was pissed and screamed as she tore through every soldier that came rushing to stop her. She didn't care. They weren't listening to her orders. They were ignoring her. Refusal to listen to their leaders' orders was unforgivable. They were traitors. Traitors had to die. So she'd kill them all. No one could be trusted. No one could be allowed to live. And if no one was willing to listen to listen to her orders she would just do it herself.

Azula turned her attention to the new group of soldiers that were coming to stop her from burning the place down. She didn't care. She was on a warpath and wanted to kill her father for ordering her around even after he had made her the new leader of the Fire Nation. She was going to kill him for never giving her a chance to rule. For never loving her. And for treating her like Zuko.

Azula burned away the troops with ease. They were nothing like the Imperial Firebenders. They were weak and defenseless under her power. She took great joy in slaughtering them as they rushed up the stairs to challenge her. She slew them all with ease and watched as their corpses fell back on their comrades, igniting others, and setting the place ablaze in areas that she hadn't managed to burn down.

As more and more troops pushed up the stairs, she began to descend them while burning everything in her path. Once she got to the bottom she began walking at a leisurely pace for the docks. She didn't want to take a War Balloon. It was too much work. A small ship would suffice for her needs.

She formed a plan in her head as she made her way to the lower levels of the Palace. She needed to get outside but the troops kept pouring in. She didn't know why they were challenging her anymore. She had killed someone or pissed someone off because they weren't listening to her. Azula was the new leader. What she said was to be followed. She wasn't a tyrant. She was a saint when compared to her father. In her eyes, killing her father would bring peace to the world. But no one wanted to obey her.

Azula got to the doors and was thrown back as they exploded inwards. She corrected her flight and landed on her feet, skidding to a halt. More guards pooled in, each one baring a weapon of sort. They rushed without a word and started their assault.

Azula screamed in primal rage as she grabbed the closes one and burned his face off with a roar of fire from her mouth. He dropped without a sound. The others moved in and were easily taken out just like the other man. When the last one hit the ground more appeared. They were getting smarter. They were armed with shields and armor. Firebenders were with them as well. But even with the power of the comet she knew that they didn't have what it took to take her out.

They formed into rows and prepared to block and fire when the ceiling came down on them. She blinked as if she had seen it coming and glanced up at the cause. A large white beast with horns and two passengers stared down at her with a murderous intent in their eyes. It took her a full two seconds to realize that the large beast was Appa and that the two riders were Katara and Zuko. She smiled at them.

"Come to help me in killing our dear old father?"

Zuko blinked and looked at the troops that were crushed. He hadn't expected this. Azula was half covered in blood, her hair was done, and what clothing she had on was torn apart. He could see her left breast with the hole she had in her shirt.

"No. I've come to stop you and claim my rightful place on the throne."

Azula shrugged. "Get in line." She jabbed her thumb in the direction of the advancing forces.

Katara stared in wonder at the female Firebender. This wasn't the Azula she remembered. Azula was calm, composed, and calculating. This Azula just straight up didn't give a damn. She was sloppy, uncoordinated, and didn't seem to take into considering that the troops were her own forces and that the building was on the verge of collapsing. She vowed to never find out what the Assassins had done to her to make such a switch in her personality. It was sickening just to know that she somehow managed to escape their clutches.

Azula turned and began slaughtering the new forces as if her brother hadn't just thrown down a challenge for the throne and against her own life.

Zuko looked to Katara for an answer. She didn't have one, or at least one that he could understand. "Maybe they'll get her for us." Katara finally said.

Zuko shook his head. "No. They'll kill her. I'd rather not see her die. But I'd rather not see her in the hands of the Assassins. Either way, we've got to stop her."

"You do realize that they'll take her regardless of what we do, right?"

They two dropped off Appa and told him to flee. Appa had no problem with those orders and flew off away from the fire and destruction.

"Just try not to get killed."

Katara decided to keep her thoughts to herself as she marched with Zuko towards Azula. She was already off killing more troops. She wondered if this was actually something that they had wanted. They had said she escaped, but she figured that to be a lie. How could Azula, in her current state of mind, actually escape from them? That didn't seem possible. And even if they had let her escape they had clearly not gotten the results they wanted from her.

Katara decided that trying to figure it out right now and needed to focus on her task at hand.

(-)

Hakoda and Sokka were on one side of the door while Lyra and Suki were on the other. Toph marched up to the middle of it, planted her ear against it, and then knocked on it a few times. Once she was sure she got their attention she kicked the door down and moved out of the way. Hakoda and Suki moved in and began snapping necks while Lyra calmly walked in with Sokka and made sure that no one escaped. Once they were dead and their bodies thrown out the window.

With the room cleared they started heading for the next room and began clearing it out. They moved from room to room before reaching the control room where the Captain was flying the ship. Lyra decided to avoid trying the explosive approach. They had done so since they got here and blowing things up in this place wasn't an option.

Toph kicked the door down with one solid kick. The guards turned and prepared to attack. A throwing knife found the head of the Captain. He dropped and Toph stood in her suit of armor. With a quick succession she downed the men and shed her armor.

"That's how it's done."

"Good work, Toph. Time to take controls of the ship. Take the wheel." Sokka smiled to Suki.

Hakoda and Lyra walked out to let the kids work out what they were going to do. Once they were at the end of the hallway, Lyra looked over the edge and kicked a small piece of metal down the shaft below them. "Long fall," she declared.

Hakoda nodded in mute acknowledgement.

"We had to have made too much noise. No way the troops on this thing don't know we're here."

Hakoda nodded mutely again.

"Let's get set up for their arrival."

She motioned to the first room that they had cleared on this level. Hakoda took it while she took up the other one. She waited in silence and soon heard the sound of boot on metal rushing for the bridge. She waited for the man to pass before she came out and moved her hand in a single lightning strike for the throat of the other man that she had walked in front of. He went down gurgling and clutching his throat. The other man turned to see what the problem was and got the same. Lyra grabbed the first one and hauled him into her hiding spot and crushing the throat of the other man with her knee.

Hakoda dealt with his targets in a similar fashion and grunted while whipping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.

Lyra turned back to the survivor as he tried to speak. She planted her hand on his throat and started to strangle him. He raised one hand to attack. She tossed him outside through the window and watched as he flailed around before losing sight of him.

They waited for a few minutes before the entire ship lowered. Lyra looked out and saw that the ocean was getting bigger. She blinked before a voice came over their speak system.

"_Attention crew. This is your Captain speaking. Please report to the bomb bay. We have a very special day today."_

Lyra grunted and waited for the next group of soldiers to arrive. This time a dozen men showed up. She didn't wait for them to pass her. She jumped out and palmed the first one in the chest. She buried her hand deep in his chest and felt his ribs break under the force. Even if she didn't kill him with the first blow she knew he was out of the game. The man stumbled backwards onto his buddies and halted their movement to a grounding halt. She palmed the next one in the face and kicked another in the groin before stabbing her fingers into his throat.

A throwing knife was lodged into the head of another from Hakoda as he jumped the railing that split them up and tackled three to the ground. He rolled to his feet and stabbed another with his knife. The other two got up and stood a full head over him. He punched one in his exposed gut while kicking another in the back of his knee. They dropped to one knee, grunted, and shot a ball of flame at him. Hakoda sidestepped the attack and elbowed the man in his face for his trouble. He tumbled back over the railing and fell down into the chasm below.

The last man took a fighting stance then cowered as Lyra tossed the last guy over the ledge and cracked her knuckles on the railing.

"Jump to your death or take a brutal beating. Your choice." Lyra's voice was dead calm. The man looked at the two and then jumped over the railing. She grabbed a few throwing knives and tossed them down at his falling form. She heard the crunch of his body striking the metal grating below and then the sound of her falling weapons hitting his body. "Go see what your son is doing."

Hakoda looked over the edge and then nodded. She watched him leave while shaking her head. She really didn't want to be here. It was too sad to for her to be here. This was child's play for her.

(-)

Piandao stepped back, readied his sword, and then moved forward begin his attack. A hail of arrows greeted him. He wove past them with liquid grace, stepped into the path of the closes attacker, and slew him with one swing. The others jumped back for distance and readied for another shot. He was already on them by the time they drew the arrows for their next attack and slew a few more as the end result.

Two arrows flew straight and true, one hitting him in the right thigh the other hitting in the left forearm. He dropped his sword and stumbling feel to the ground clutching his thigh. The other soldiers readied their arrows on other targets while one stepped forward, grabbing his sword and stopping over him with it pointed down at his chest.

"How sad is it to die by your own blade?"

The soldier coughed, looked down, and saw a sword stabbing out of his gut. He gurgled as it was drawn upward and cleaved him in half. A shower of blood fell on the older sword maker as his adopted son with his Sakabatō clenched in one hand.

The soldiers turned their attention to him and readied their arrows.

"Such impudence." Blindside flicked his sword and the ground gave away under their feet. They hit the ground for their safety from the mini earthquake. Blindside moved swiftly between them and cut them apart with his sword.

Firebenders arrived to reinforce a weakening line and attacked with all their rage on display. Blindside gave them a sorrow look and calmly carved a line along the soil. The earth moved forward like a wave and crashed into the soldiers, sucked them down into the cold earth, and trapped them.

With the soldiers cleared Blindside grabbed his adopted father up and helped him remove the arrows. Once done he gave him back of his sword and looked him over.

"I know," Piandao grumbled with a pale smile. "You don't want to see me die in a place like this."

"Coming here was your choice. If you die here it will mean very little to me. You will have died how you lived: A Warrior." Blindside motioned to Pakku. "Stay with him. I'll handle this."

He drew his double-bladed sword and flicked the blood from his other off with a twist of the wrist. Before his adopted father could say a word he was off. Blindside stabbed his Sakabatō into the wall next to him and ran with it in the solid earth. Two screams sounded from the other side as he ran and yanked it out. He leapt over fallen bodies, slew soldiers faster than they could blink, and made his way to the heart of the problem they were now dealing with.

Ty Lee and Blink took cover behind Inferno as he huddle like a turtle behind his large shield. Blink and Ty Lee would pop up every now and then and throw throwing knives at whatever enemy they could see. At Inferno's feet lay Geo and his sister, both slain by arrows and Firebending.

Blindside charged past Inferno through a hail of arrows and wove a path of destruction towards them. Free to move, Inferno bellowed with rage and surged forward with Ty Lee and Blink jogging to keep behind her and free of the arrows that were now focusing on Blindside.

The Elite Swordsman got to the archers' blind spot and took cover for a brief moment. They turned their focus back to Inferno and tried to take him down with a mass fire of arrows. They splintered against his large shield. Firebenders took a stab at it and did little to nothing but smolder the armor he wore.

Blindside moved forward and slashed the building the archers were on top of. It wavered then collapsed into a pile of broken rocks. The archers rose after a moment and were cut down by the Rank Five Assassin before Inferno could arrive.

The Firebenders were ready before he was and lashed out with their attacks. Inferno stepped in the path and blocked it. Roaring in anger, Inferno sputter stepped towards them and brought both shield and sword down on a trio of soldiers. They were crushed under the weight brutal force behind the attack. Three others jumped away and attacked simultaneously.

A throwing knife was lodged into the left eye of one soldier while the other two were stopped by a few quick jabs to the chest. They reached for their chests but fell short and dropped dead without a sound. Ty Lee and Blink stood side-by-side gasping for air.

"_**Mercy killing?" **_Inferno asked.

Ty Lee nodded slowly. "No point in suffering."

Inferno huffed a small breath of flame, the equivalent of a snort, and continued on his way before the ground rumbled. His foot went through a hole and he dropped to one knee. The earth rose and slammed into his chest, throwing him back.

Ty Lee and Blink jumped away as the earth rumbled around them and rose up to greet them. They landed next to Blindside and took a fighting stance. Dai Li Agents arrived. Ten in total.

Five Firebenders arrived to back them up and turned and targeted Inferno as he pulled himself out of the ground. The Dai Li Agents followed and began pelting his armor with small rocks.

Blink reached for a throwing knife but found none. She ran with Blindside at her side. Two Dai Li Agents turned and attacked. Blindside pulled ahead and slashed the raised earth apart with one sword, the other poised for a killing blow. The closes Dai Li Agent was bisected and fell before his comrade could retaliate. Blink was in front of him and jabbed two fingers into his throat. He gasped, felt tiny nails dig at his Adams Apple, and then tear it out with a hard kick to his sternum.

The others paid no mind and wore down the man in the armor. He howled in raw anger as his shield was dented and finally torn from his grasp. His chest plate buckled under the hail of sharp stone. The armor was just thick enough to avoid being penetrated by the hail of sharp stone. The massive suit of armor heated under the Firebenders' attacks and began to break with ease as the Dai Li Agents pelted him over and over again. Two Dai Li Agents rushed forward, slapped the ground, and raised the earth in front of him. Two pillars of earth struck him dead in the chest and threw him back into a small shop. With a wave of their hands it came crashing down on him.

Blindside and Blink stepped back as the Firebenders and Dai Li Agents turned their sights on them. Ty Lee wanted to rush in and fight but soon saw the aura of Inferno burn brightly in pure rage. The air began to waver and then a blinding light and heat smothered her.

Inferno had risen from the destroyed shop with cracked armor and an aura of damnation. Ty Lee had to look twice to make sure she was looking at the aura right. Before she could check twice Inferno had used his Firebending in the most unique way she had ever seen. It rose out of the joints of his armor at his elbow, knees, and collarbones. The flame rose high and died out just as quickly as they appeared.

It took Ty Lee a moment to realize what had happened.

The suit twitched and then collapsed into pieces as it was shed. When the chest plate fell Ty Lee gawked while Blindside grunted. "Lost ten gold pieces," he declared.

Inferno stood up and stretched before gold eyes with a maroon flick in the corner of the eyes locked on the soldiers. Covered in a full length black shirt and pants with a black mask over the lower of _her _face, and long brown hair fluttering behind her, she didn't look at all happy.

Ty Lee took a tentative step forward then gasped as Inferno blazed across the open terrain with a burst of flame from her heels. She got straight up in the face of one soldier, placed her hands on his chest, smiled behind her mask, and blew him away with a blast of fire that engulfed the others. Inferno in her armor was very slow. But when she was freed she was the second fastest Assassin losing only to Naruto. And without her armor to restrict her movements and keep her Firebending under some level of control, she was a caged beast that was no free to slaughter to her hearts content.

With Inferno free of her armor she began moving at a fast pace through the entire army with the others tailing behind.

(-)

Aang watched in horror as the Airship Fleet began their approach. He could see him now. Amongst the flames of the lead Airship, a large and far more powerful version of the others, the Fire Lord stood burning a path of destruction that his men would follow without question. Lives were going to be lost if he got into the heart of the land. Already the trees and land was aflame. Aang felt their pain. He would not let this action go unpunished.

"Momo, time for you to leave."

The Flying Lemur licked his once before taking off.

Aang took a deep breath and then began doing what needed to be done. He kicked the air with a low sweeping kick, then a mid-level kick, a high kick, and then a jumping roundhouse kick. Each kick sent out a chunk of earth from the large rise mountain of earth he stood on. Each high speed projectile flew straight into the left engine block for the propeller and sent it listing on its side as it lost altitude and control.

Aang turned to face it and locked eyes with Ozai. From where Aang stood he knew that Ozai was surprised to see him. Before the Airship could crash land Ozai had stripped his armor and robe and blasted off using Firebending. Aang watched him come for him and land a good distance away.

"After generations of Fire Lords failed to find you, now the universe delivers you to me as an act of providence." Ozai shouted.

"Please listen to me," Aang begged. "We don't have to fight. You have the power to end it here and stop what you're doing."

"You are right. I _do _have the power. I have all the power in the world." Three large torrents of flame erupted from his mouth and fists as if to get the point across. "So tell me what your goal is now, _Avatar_? It hasn't escaped me that you don't kill."

Aang closed his eyes for a moment then took his fighting stance. "I'm going to kill you! And bring back the peace and balance of this world!"

Ozai shook his head with a loud laugh. Aang didn't care and waited for his opening attack. For Aang this was the most serious fight of his life. Killing Ozai was the only option. He understood that now. Even having the power to bend the energy of another being would do him little good against Ozai when he can still lead troops and run an underground Nation.

(-)

Zuko grabbed Katara as he jumped for safety. They hit the ground hard, rolled together, and then sprang up while putting their backs to the pillar that was between them and the large blue flames that Azula was shooting at them and the guards.

It was a three-way fight. The guards were trying to kill Azula and Zuko and Katara. Azula was trying to kill the guards, Ozai if she ever got out of this mess, and Zuko and Katara. And Katara and Zuko were trying to fight the guards to a standstill without killing them, though they had already killed quite a few, most of which had been done by accident, and stopping Azula, the latter of which was proving to be very hard.

The guards dropped their focus on the two teens and turned back to Azula. Zuko didn't care at the moment. As long as they were trying to wear down Azula without killing her he didn't care. He needed her worn down right now since she was proving to be a major handful.

Katara elbowed him. He let go and gave an apologetic grunt as he looked around the corner. Azula was focused on the guards and was burning them to ash. The placed smelled horrible because of how well she was roasting them. Zuko did all he could not to puke up his lunch at the moment. The smell was that bad to him and something he knew would be next to impossible to get out of this place for a while.

The two waited for the guards to thin and then turned to attack. Azula seemed to have been expecting them and had already started shooting in their direction. Zuko stepped forward and brought one hand to the ground and batted away her flames with his own. Blue and red flames clashed and ignited the ceiling and surrounding walls. Katara moved fast and tried to knock her back with what water she still had.

Azula spat a ball of fire from her mouth and flashed evaporated her water. She followed up with two punches that sent two balls of swirling fire in her direction.

Zuko stepped in their path and waved both arms to side while squatting. Two plums of fire erupted from the ground and blocked the shot. Zuko rose without thought and returned with a powerful blast of spiraling fire that snaked its way to Azula. She sidestepped it and was about to counter when three fireballs and a hail of arrows sailing their direction.

Katara grabbed Zuko with her water and yanked him out of the way. Azula stood her ground and laughed as the arrows missed and the fireballs fell beneath her Firebending. When the troops were close enough she blasted them with a wave of her hand and send them tumbling backwards, some rolling to extinguish their flaming bodies.

Katara and Zuko took cover and then ran for the safety of a room as the archers started taking shots at them. Zuko jumped through the burning door, rolled to extinguish the small flames that had coated him, and put his back against the wall next to the door as Katara came running in doing the same. A single arrow bounced off the doorframe and landed at Katara's feet. She stared down at it and then took a shy glance outside their cover.

Azula held the last of the archers in her bleeding hands and smiled down on him. She killed him by placing her hand over his mouth and Firebending into his body. She knew that his lungs would collapse and that the flames would eat away at his inside. Once she was through she tossed him aside and turned back to Zuko and Katara.

Katara ducked her head back in and waited for the first of what she assumed would be many Firebending attacks. When none came she grew worried. Her back warmed and she jumped instinctively. The wall brightened and then blasted away in a shower of fiery chunks of wood and stone.

Zuko capitalized on the moment and kicked his sister in the gut. She doubled over, clutched his leg, and then spat a glob of fire at him. Zuko punched it out of the air and followed through with a vicious punch to her jaw. Her head snapped back and her grip loosened enough for him to break free. Once free he lashed out with a high kick to the side of her head.

Katara jumped in and struck Azula with her water whip. Azula fell to the side and it was then that they realized their folly. Twenty Imperial Firebenders stood side-by-side and struck at the same time.

Zuko tackled Katara and hit the ground hard. The floor groaned and then collapsed to the lowest level of the Palace. Zuko turned in mid-air and took the brunt of the fall. Katara slipped out of his grip and rolled off him. She gasped for air just like Zuko and dragged him away from the opening for his safety. As soon as she had moved him away from the hole and got him to his feet a body fell through and landed head first. Azula dropped down a moment later and continued her assault against them.

Zuko shoved Katara out of the way and punched the ground. A torrent of flames rose and to greet Azula's fire attacks. Before Zuko could get his bearings situated Azula burst through the flames attacking all out. Zuko rolled backwards, kicked his legs out and spun on his back to create a circle of flame that knocked Azula back when she tried to defend herself.

Zuko jumped up without thought and backed up as Katara came in with what little water she now had. Azula looked to her left and saw the attack coming. She froze and was hit. Katara didn't stop to think about the hesitation and wrapped Azula up in the water before freezing it. Azula continued to look past her and at something in the shadows.

"_I love you, Azula."_

"You never loved me, mother."

Zuko looked into the shadows and closed his eyes. She was gone and trapped in a hallucination. There was no one there. Azula had officially lost her mind in his eyes. She wasn't the same anymore and giving her to the Assassins seemed so horribly wrong now that he couldn't bring himself to not do it. He had to do it. If she was this far gone than the only way to ensure the safety of the world was to let them take her. Killing her would help, but then he might be killed by the Assassins for doing that. If someone else did it, like a guard, then he'd be okay.

"_You're right, Azula. I don't love you." _Azula blinked. _"I never loved you, just like how Ozai never loved you and loved only Zuko. You are a failure."_

Azula's lips quivered. It shouldn't have hurt that much. But the woman, her mother that now stood before her, was telling her something she refused to believe but accepted. Her father had given her command of the Fire Nation but put a strict leash on her, thwarting most of her plans and keeping her from doing what she always wanted. And when she started making changes she got word that he wasn't pleased and was about to launch an attack to kill her for being a failure.

The pain finally reached deep into her psyche and her mind swam with visions of her brother as leader of the Fire Nation, their father dead by his hands. He was the crown prince and now the ruler. She wouldn't let that happen.

Azula screamed and exploded into a ball of fire that broke the ice restraints. The ceiling caught fire and began raining droplets of flame as she strode towards Zuko.

"It's mine! Do you hear me? It's my throne! And I'll be the one to kill father! Just you watch! Just you watch, mother! I'll prove I'm not a failure!"

Zuko blinked and prayed for her soul.

(-)

Naruto put his back to the wall and caught his breath. An uphill battle against an enemy that was semi prepared, well rested, and had the high ground with enhanced Firebending and expert archers fortifying the place was a hard thing for anyone. Zentrai even stood with his back against the wall of their cover and tried to catch his breath. He gulped down the air too fast and Naruto kept a close eye on him before looking away. Zentrai had managed to slow his breathing down and was now breathing properly.

The only advantage in this battle right now was that the enemy was focused on two points. They were rushing the Palace. Azula had gone crazy and needed to be taken out. Those orders were given to the soldiers and when Zentrai had read their minds and learned what they were going after he nearly panicked. They needed Azula alive and back in their loving arms. They couldn't afford to lose her. Well they actually could. They hadn't invested any money into her: Just a few hundred people that didn't pay to have sex with her and hopefully knock her up, along with a few weeks of brutal mental torture. They couldn't really afford the loss, but they could deal with it.

Zentrai, however, wanted her back. He wanted her back just for the sake of having her and not letting Zuko get what he wanted. She would never be a pawn to use against Zuko. She would be a breeding stock for her prowess in Firebending and mentality.

Once Naruto was certain that his friend was alright he glanced around the corner of their cover and looked up the hill. They didn't have much further to go before they were at the top of the volcano.

Naruto took point and ran as fast as his legs could carry him without using his power. He wanted to save that for a critical moment.

The archers took notice of him first and started firing at him. Naruto weaved around their arrows using the rocks for cover and to make them lose sight of him. It worked for a moment before another archer set up in a different spot would take notice and fire on him.

Zentrai followed thirteen seconds later and started dropping the archers with his throwing weapons. Two archers fell before they noticed him and started focusing on him. Zentrai summoned a wall of metal and flung bits and pieces out to stop them. The metal was small enough that they never saw it coming until it was too late. And when they did see it coming they weren't fast enough to get out of the line of fire.

Once they were all focused on the more immediate threat they failed to keep up with the real threat. Naruto got in close and started killing them two at a time if they were close enough to do so. With a captured spear he cut throats, impaled hearts, and shattered skulls until the weapon finally gave away under the strain of the beating it was dishing out in his hands.

The Firebenders spotted him and started attacking while other ran to complete their mission to stop Azula. Naruto blazed forth and smashed his fist into one, shattering the armor and tearing a fist sized hole in his gut. The man dropped clutching the opening in his belly before finally succumbing to death.

Naruto raced up the hill, stopped, and glanced back at his comrade. Zentrai was making his way up with Rai and Shibaru racing up to greet the blond. Without pausing they passed him by and tackled a single soldier that was crawling away and tore him apart.

The former Jinchuuriki pushed past them, snagging their attention in the process and had them on his tail after him. Rai surged past him; fangs bared and tore into the rear end of a fleeing soldier. He bit deep and tore his ass away from his body. The man hit the ground, cried, and then was silenced when Shibaru bit down into his throat. Her powerful maw crushed his neck and with a single tug had yanked his head away from his body. The two began hungrily eating on the dead body before moving on to continue the charge.

Zentrai got to his friend and stopped beside him as they made it to the top of the volcano. Now that they were at the top they had the advantage of seeing where the enemy was and put them on the defensive as they rained down death on them. But they realized that they didn't have to do that. What enemy soldiers were up here, were too focused on their city. It was burning. The entire city was burning. What parts of the city that weren't on fire were about to be on fire as it spread from roof to roof.

The two watched as the soldiers ran towards the Palace without stopping to try and put out the fire. They must have figured it to be pointless with an army of Firebenders trying to stop Azula, probably the strongest Firebender in the Fire Nation at the moment, trying to destroy everything around her.

Rai howled and they ran.

Archers and Firebenders turned and looked up the hill. When they spotted the two Assassins and their pets racing down on them they attacked. Combined Firebending force the two to split apart with their pets following their master.

Naruto and Rai stuck down behind the market place and were instantly being hounded by soldiers with swords and axes. Zentrai was forced into the residential area and instantly surrounded by a dozen Firebenders.

Rai jumped up and attacked the first one that got too close. When Naruto was on his feet he jumped through a window, rolled, grabbed a butcher axe and ran out the back of the building. He swung and removed the head of a soldier then tossed it into the face of another. He rushed passed the man that had been hit by the axe, grabbing it in the process, and proceeded to slaughter the men. Once finished he glanced up and saw Zentrai standing on top of a building.

Zentrai read their minds and cursed as he brought all of his weapons to bear. His shirt exploded off his form and his weapons formed four walls around him as the Firebenders opened up on him. He could feel the heat from their attack washing against his skin. The weapons warmed and then began to glow brightly before turning into liquid that broke apart and allowed the flames to pass through without resistance.

One wall collapsed and the flames roared towards him. Zentrai braced for the end and stared down the rolling flames. His vision turned into a blur as he felt strong arms grab him up and his feet leave the ground. It took him a moment to realize that Naruto had dived in and jumped out with him in tow.

His world darkened and then snapped back into focus as Naruto landed on a build two blocks away from the Firebenders. Naruto let him go and walked over to the edge. Zentrai caught his breath and looked up at his friend as he collapsed to his knees.

"_Too close," _Zentrai told him. Naruto said nothing. _"I'm out of weapons. All I have is my wire and I'm not wasting that right now."_

The blond removed one of his pouches and held it for him to send what was inside. Zentrai nodded but frowned. He didn't want to use these things now. He had hoped to wait until they were in the Palace before he was out of weapons to throw and had to rely on Naruto's extra weapons for him. At least he had been prepared for this.

Naruto pumped it twice before throwing it high into the air. Zentrai reached out with one hand, flexed his fingers, and then slapped his hand to the ground. The pouch exploded with tiny streaks of light racing down to the ground like a meteor shower. The soldiers were unprepared and never saw it coming until they were already being stuck down by the weapons.

What few survivors were still out there that managed to survive the attack attempted to crawl away only to be eaten by Rai or Shibaru.

Naruto removed another pouch and tossed it to him. Zentrai knew what was inside and strapped it to his belt. He then moved down with his comrade and proceeded to run through the remains of the Capital before reaching a group of soldiers that were standing at the entrance to the Palace trying to clear the blockage that had fallen.

Zentrai wanted to use the other pouch but decided against it. These guys had no idea that they were here. That gave them a chance to assassinate them in true Assassin fashion. Only three became aware and it was too late when they noticed. With their comrades dead the two had no problem in dealing with them.

With the soldiers dead they entered the Palace.

Not two feet in and they were on the run. The ceiling groaned and threatened to collapse. Naruto grabbed his friend before the dust could reach the ground and jumped outside. They rolled, sprang to their feet, and began running through the courtyard.

Zentrai turned and tossed the final pouch. With a flick of the wrist it exploded outwards into a hail of tiny projectiles that tore through the enemy ranks, but not nearly doing enough damage. A few were slain by the sudden attack and dropped into the pond but a lot of them survived it and counter attacked, burning the garden, trees, and heating the water to a boiling point. The fish turned over and died from the sudden attack as the water was boiled and the oxygen dissolved out of it from the constant flames.

Naruto stopped, turned, and tossed two kunai straight at the men. Zentrai took control of them made sure they struck their targets. Two more went down out of a dozen.

Zentrai grabbed his blond friend and threw him to the ground. Naruto was about to complain when the sky turned yellow. It passed just as quickly as it appeared and Naruto was the first to get back to his feet and hastily yanked his friend up as well.

Zentrai read their minds and grimaced. There was around sixty or so Firebenders if he was reading the number of minds correctly.

Zentrai tossed Naruto some wire and smiled at him. Naruto grimaced and began running through the soldiers. He broke limbs, snapped necks, flared his power for brief moments as he punched some of the pillars and wrapped them up so the wire would be easier to pull on, and wrapped up the soldiers. Naruto appeared on the other side of the soldiers and yanked on the wire. The soldiers fell, not dead, and tried to break free before the end could come.

Naruto flared his power again as Zentrai tossed him the other end of the wire and watched him start running with it. Zentrai smiled and linked with all of them as the wire began to slowly slice through their flesh. He was enjoying this far more than he should.

The wire tightened around the soldiers and began slicing through them with great ease as the teen pulled hard on it. What few pillars were ensnared by the wire began to crack and groan before the wire passed right through them while doing their job to act as a pulley system to make things easier for them. With a sickening crunch the bodies finally broke into pieces under the strain of the wire and they fell to the ground dead. The pillars that held up the ceiling for the roof of what could only be a picnic area fell and the ceiling collapsed with it.

Zentrai scanned their minds and confirmed that they were dead before they started moving again.

(-)

Calamity stood atop the Palace of Ba Sing Se and waited for the others to arrive and finish the fight. They hadn't managed to capture it yet and they were on the verge of trying to take it at the moment. However, he didn't want to take it at the moment. It served no real value for him to take it. He had the power to take it. It was a simple method of burning down the flag of the Fire Nation and simply killing a few guards. That was too easy and not his style. Besides, he had to stick to the plan.

"It's a little sad right now for you, isn't it?"

Calamity had waited for moments to prove himself where people would see him in all his grace. But nothing ever did quite like being alone with someone, the enemy usually, and forcing them to watch as their little world came crashing around their feet. He enjoyed that when he could. He savored those moments because they were few and far between.

His captive glanced outwards over the captured city of Ba Sing Se. Calamity never took the chance to memorize the name of his enemy once he had gotten them where he wanted them. Before a confrontation he would learn everything about the person and keep that information in his heart until he got what he wanted. Such was the case with this man. He was a General, a former General now. He had a wife and two sons. Both of which were brought before him dead with the wife being the last one to be slain. He had killed his best friend in front of him and then forced the man watch as his army was destroyed.

Broken, beaten, defeated, and stripped of everything that made him who he was, he had become nothing more than a shell and stared in mute horror to the tragedy of his loss.

His soldiers were being slaughtered by the combined forces of the Order of the White Lotus and the Assassins. The bulk of his forces were behind the Inner Ring and ready for the attack. He wondered if they were aware that he was captured.

Calamity removed his mask and waved a hand forward. _Semantics, _he thought with a smile. "I was never someone who cared for senseless violence. I'm not saying I like it now. I never have. But I do what I must to win all of my battles."

The captured General sighed in despair as he watched another miracle form before his eyes.

His troops which he had so carefully placed behind the safety of the walls to prepare in ambush had no idea what was coming. Without warning the ground rumbled and then opened up. A cloud of dust rose and obscured their view of what was happening, but the General had an idea on what was happening. He had seen Earthbenders in action before. The ground had collapsed, plain and simple. He didn't know how far of a fall it was, but he didn't need to imagine it being too far to be a certain kill. And even if there were survivors they would fall under the attack of those that were above them. What forces were probably left standing were dazed, confused, and trying to find leadership.

"I failed."

"Yes, you did." Calamity breathed deeply. And end to the war about to come to fruition and he was the one who had led the victory for the Assassins. He didn't care. "So when will your reinforcements arrive?"

The General flinched.

Calamity smiled behind his mask. "You think I wouldn't notice it? You truly are a fool to think that I didn't know about them." Calamity removed his mask and stared intently into the west. The former General growled. "Don't be so angry. It wasn't hard to figure out what you were doing. You're too predictable. And for that you will suffer."

He waved one hand and snapped his fingers.

The end was coming now.

(-)

Suki grabbed Lyra and yanked her onto the gantry and fell down as flames raced up to greet them. The flames barely missed them but the metal floors began to hit beneath them. They jumped to their feet and began running.

What had started out as a somewhat easy mission was now reduced to pure luck. For their part they had done things rather well. Sokka had even come up with a great plan to deal with the Airship Fleet while Aang focused on the Fire Lord.

"Airship Slice," he had proclaimed.

Confusion had gone around before it became clear.

Sokka had been true to his word by using the captured Airship to strike the others in a slicing attack of sorts. By positioning the Airship above the others and flying just low enough to graze them they would lose their air and fall to the ground. Nothing would stop the chain of events from happening. Their Airship had proven well enough in this act and worked like a charm for the first few Airships before the damage became too great for her to overcome. Their captured Airship broke apart, pulling Suki and Lyra along for the ride while Sokka, Hakoda, and Toph were trapped on the other end and crashed on another of the Airships.

Shortly after their graceful landing on the Airship they were spotted and went running as Imperial Firebenders and Engineers tried to deal with them. It was clear that they only reason they had gone topside was to check for damages when they landed. They hadn't intended to find two female teens ready to kick their ass.

Once they were done with those guys they had decided to try and take control of the Airship. That proved to be a bad idea. They either knew about the other hijacking somehow or had simple been overstocked with soldiers for this little attack. There were too many of them to fight and Lyra and Suki had given up on the idea of trying to take it the normal way and were now trying to think of a different way to do this.

Suki braced herself against the doorframe while Lyra slammed the large door shut. She locked it and for once wished she had learned from Toph had to Metalbend a little. It would have helped them since she couldn't jam the lock.

The two girls took a breather and then proceeded up the ladder to the top of the Airship. Once they were on top they attempted to seal the entrance but soon gave up once they realized that there were multiple ways up to the surface. In the end they decided to simply make an attempt on crushing the hatches to the closes of their goal.

They had managed to see Toph take control of one of them by Metalbending the rudder. It was able to spiral out of control and so far hadn't managed to hit anything. It was a slow moving object and it was going to hit one of the other Airships' soon.

"Grab onto those cables and pull as hard as you can," Suki said. "We might be able to take control of it that way."

Lyra ignored her and had already grabbed one of the cables with one hand. It gave way surprisingly easily and the Airship instantly began to turn. Lyra let go and ran for the closes of the hatches. "You can do that. I'll watch your back."

Lyra didn't wait for a reply as she approached the first hatch. It was already being opened and the soldier that had come out looked rather surprised to see her standing above him. Lyra kicked him back down the hatch and didn't bother to watch as he collapsed back on his comrades. She yanked the remains of the hatch off and tossed it down on the men below. It was just enough of a fall that it would knock them out without killing them. She was hoping that the fall would loosen them up for it though.

Once that hatch was secure she moved to the next one, checked it, and then moved to the next one. It was loaded with more soldiers and two of them were already out. She tossed a knife into one of them and kicked the other off the side. He skidded, screamed, and vanished. Another got up but was quickly knocked down back into the hole. Lyra grabbed the hatched and slammed it close, crushing three fingers of one soldier that screamed and probably tried to push the hatch open to free his fingers.

She checked the other hatches and then returned to Suki. She was steering the Airship straight for the ship that Sokka was stuck on. Lyra couldn't see him at the moment; she had a feeling that Suki could. She braced against the rudder and looked up for anything out of the ordinary as they collided with the bottom of the Airship. Through the falling debris three figures fell and hit hard.

Suki let go and ran for the three figures that turned into Hakoda, Toph, and Sokka. Sokka was clutching his leg and trying to stand with the help of his dad.

"I broke my leg," he explained through gritted teeth when asked.

Suki helped him stand up and looked to Hakoda for support.

"We need to take this Airship," Toph told them. "I can feel about a dozen more people in this thing that are still alive and kicking."

A hatch opened and a lone Firebender emerged. They were huddled up and Lyra knew that they were toast. The soldier was pulled his hand back and then pushed it forward as fire gathered at his knuckles. Before his arm could go forward he immediately collapsed with a familiar blue object lodged in the back of his head.

"What do you know? My boomerang did come back." Toph laughed at the irony of that and retrieved it for him. "How are we going to go about this?"

"Easy," Lyra said softly. "We go in and we kill them all. What's simpler than that?"

Sokka rolled his eyes. He wanted a plan. Not what they were going to do.

"We'll figure it out as we go," Hakoda told them. "For now, Lyra and Toph can take point. Suki, can you stay with me and back us up?"

Suki nodded and glanced worryingly to Sokka.

Lyra tore the hatch open without pause and looked down. Two Firebender were waiting for them. She hopped back and let the flames fly through the hole. When they were finished dropped down with a loud crash as she hit the two soldiers. She dispatched them quickly and moved on without pause.

Once the others were down Toph and Lyra pushed forward ahead of the others and got to the Bridge. Once they were there Toph felt out the area ahead and confirmed that what remained of the soldiers were on the other side waiting for them. Lyra smiled.

"I hope you got a plan."

"We're going to kick the door in."

Toph smiled.

The two females stood back ten feet away from the door then rushed it. With a might flying kick they knocked the door in, crushing one man while the others started Firebending the moment the door had gone flying. Toph acted quicker than expected and yanked the floor up faster than they could react. Their enhanced Firebending came back and bit them hard as the flames rolled up the wall, hit the ceiling, then came crashing down on the soldiers.

Those that didn't die near instantly from the heat tried to extinguish their flames. Lyra and Toph quickly killed them and made sure the place was secure before Sokka and the others arrived. Once they arrived they slammed the door back into place and had Toph use her Metalbending to jam it in place.

"What about the other men on the ship?" Suki asked. "I doubt we can use the same trick twice."

"We don't have to worry about it," Toph informed them. "If they get to close to the door, I'll let you know and we can act accordingly."

No one said anything to that. Toph was their ultimate scout out at the moment.

An explosion sounded in the distance and they turned to watch as a mushroom cloud formed. It was clear that the fight for the world wasn't looking good as they watched the fight.

(-)

Katara grimaced as the blue flames of Azula's master Firebending blazed overhead. When Azula stopped Firebending, Katara jumped to her feet and ran for cover. Zuko walked out of hiding and took a few shots at Azula. Azula turned and blocked it with her Firebending then turned to the last of the soldiers and slew them without batting an eye as they screamed and wiggled around before death took them.

Zuko waited a brief moment before attacking Azula again. Azula was nearly burned by his attack as she failed to notice it and turned instead to attack Katara instead after blocking it. Her blue flames soared and burned a hole in the wall from the intensity of her attack. Katara had jumped away and started running as Azula followed up and started to follow her with a stream of fire.

Zuko grabbed Azula from behind and stopped the attack. She screamed and breathed fire out. It smacked the ceiling and came down around them.

Katara watched as the flames consumed them and obscured them from view. When the flames thinned Zuko was shown with burns on his arms and back while Azula had nothing but some singed hair.

Azula fought in his grasp and finally broke free after kicking him in the groin. Zuko let go from the surprise attack and nearly fell down as his legs threatened to buckle from her surprise attack.

Katara jumped in, grabbed Azula, and fell to the ground before she could attack Zuko. They hit hard, rolled, and Azula came out on top. She forgot about her Firebending and simply started punching Katara in the face. Katara raised one hand to block and used the other to strike at her throat. Azula gurgled but kept punching until Zuko grabbed her by the back of her shirt and yanked her off.

Katara got to her feet slowly and covered her mouth where she was bleeding from. She spat out a glob of blood and glared down at Azula. The once famous Firebending Princess stumbled to her feet and Katara tackled her to the ground and this time took the dominate role. Katara didn't stop punching until her knuckles were bleeding and Azula was smiling at her through bloodstained teeth. Her smile pissed her off even more and she began trying to tear her hair before just slamming her head repeatedly against the hard floors.

"That's enough, Katara!" Zuko grabbed the young Waterbender up and pulled her away. Azula was still conscious and tried to get back up only to be knocked down by Zuko. "And you stay down! You've lost, Azula. I've won."

Azula groaned and didn't move.

Zuko breathed heavily and blinked tears out of his eyes. The flames were getting to him.

"Katara, find some chains to bind her with." She shot him a dirty look. "You'll kill her and that'll have the Assassins wanting to kill me. As much as I'd rather not have Azula in their hands, I enjoy the idea of living on. So I'll please them just to stay alive."

Katara bound Azula with some water from water fountain that she turned into ice. Azula didn't seem to want to fight anymore. Zuko thought that strange but decided to not say anything on the matter. Once she was fully bound, Azula looked up, smiled, and laughed before crying. Katara put an ice muzzle on her to shut her up and promptly smashed her fist into the back of her head as Naruto and Zentrai finally showed up.

"You guys did well," Naruto told them. Zentrai rounded up Azula and gave the two a thankful glance. "We should leave before this place comes down on heads."

Fire flew forward and nearly hit them. It was either a warning shot or had simply been a massive miss on accident. Either way it served as a warning for them to get to cover.

Zentrai gave the order to retreat and for Naruto and Zuko to take point. Katara was behind Zentrai with Rai and Shibaru bringing up the rear.

"Where's Appa at?"

"We told him to retreat when we arrived but now that I think about it, he probably would have simply done it even before we ordered him to do so." Zuko stopped cold with Naruto doing the same a moment later. A small group of soldiers were running for them. "They got here fast."

"_They're all running to get to the Palace," _Zentrai said. _"I don't have any weapons left and we've used all of Naruto's weapons as well. But we should be able to take care of them easily enough." _

Naruto considered using his power but Zentrai cut them down with what weapons he was able to take from Naruto.

Appa roared down on them and landed with a loud crash. No one decided to speak as they jumped on top of the ten ton magical flying animal and flew off.

"_We need to get to Ba Sing Se and drop off Azula," _Zentrai told them. He knocked out Azula and yanked out some vials from his pant pockets along with two small leather bags. Naruto looked away as his friend began making the antidote for their poisons. _"If we're lucky the fighting has stopped and the war is over. After we drop off Azula we have to go to where the Airship Fleet was heading to help them out and possibly stop Ozai if he wasn't stopped by Aang."_

Zentrai breathed a sigh of relief then turned and punch Zuko hard in the face. _"And that's for disobeying my orders, Zuko. Don't forget that right now I own your sorry ass." _

No saw a reason to argue that point and laid down to sleep for a bit. Naruto remained awake for a few more hours before finally succumbing to the urge to sleep. Zentrai followed after finishing the antidote and made sure that Appa was heading in the right direction.

(-)

"_Kill yourself." _

Ozai watched with fear in his eyes as the powerful Air Nomad, the last of his kind and the current Avatar floated above him. He had been bested. Beaten by a teen with all the power in the world. Would the afterlife actually laugh at him or would they accept it as another win for the Avatar and never question it? Or would he simply be reborn like the Avatar was but in a different body and soul while retaining some of his qualities from this life? Reincarnation was something he never wrapped his mind around.

He never did like looking back on his life but as he stared into the glowing white eyes of the Avatar he found it strange that he was seeing his happier moments with his wife. He remembered her being pregnant with Zuko and had remembered never being as proud as he was then, only to have it rivaled with Azula's birth. Those were good times. He cherished those memories until his thirst for power drove them away. Why had he forgotten those memories?

Ozai could still taste the cake at their wedding and then the taste Ursa's lips. He could still smell the perfume she wore but couldn't place it. The name escaped him but the memory of what it smelt like stuck with him.

"So you had a girl?" Iroh had asked him when Azula was born. He remembered never resenting his brother back then and never once complaining about wanting to take the throne either. Had that come on because he was hungry for power? "What will you name her?"

Ozai thought the memory was strange but closed his eyes as the earth rose up and wrapped him up.

His fear drained from him as he felt warm hands on his chest. The hands were small and smooth. They were the hands of his wife, Ursa. The memory of their first night in bed came to the front of his mind and he watched happily as her breasts swayed back and forth. It was their first time in bed and he had never forgotten it until after she'd been sent away by him for helping him kill his father.

More memories flooded him and he suddenly realized why. His life was flashing before his eyes because he was dying. He knew what was happening before he even felt it. There was no white light or dark chains' racing up to greet him. It was empty and dark. No light. No sun. No clouds. Just darkness. Pure and empty.

More memories flooded him and he drowned in them until he saw his own fight with Aang. He had been winning. He was going to win and then it all went so horribly wrong. The Avatar State had finally kicked in and the shoe was on the other foot. He was put on the defensive. Each time he tried to attack he was pushed back and his attacks destroyed by the simplest of methods. And finally, he ran. He ran for his life but didn't get far. He was caught, dropped to the ground, and then prisoned to the ground by earth as Aang gave him his judgment.

A fresh memory came to him. It was the last time he had slept with his wife. It was right before the plan to overthrow his father had taken place. They had slept together under the pale moonlight knowing that it would be the last time that they'd ever see each other in the flesh. Memories were the only thing that he had of her now and he regretted them. Memories were all well and good but the real thing was better.

His skin bristled and he felt intense heat wash over him. His vision came back and a bright light erupted through the darkness. He had a few seconds to think about what was happening before it dawned on him. In those few seconds he felt fear, but wanted to laugh that off. He thought he was sad but it only made him bored. In all his life and choices he had decided to simply believe that he had left the Fire Nation and its future in great hands.

One moment he was still thinking and then the next he was gone. Just a whisper in the wind.

(-)

They knew the battle was over before they actually saw it. With the captured Airship they flew down to where Aang was. Once they had spotted him they had made a beeline for him and landed close enough to easily walk across to him. They had seen Aang's actions as he put out the fire caused by their fighting and the Firebenders on the downed Airships.

Sokka was overjoyed and expressed himself visually and loudly. Lyra ignored him though, as did Aang, and began looking around for any signs of Ozai. The only thing she found was a blackened spot on the ground where they had landed.

"So what happened?" Hakoda asked for her. "Where's… the Fire Lord?"

Aang was silent as he moved to the Airship. "He's been defeated." He calmly walked into the shadows of the Airship and vanished into one of the rooms.

Hakoda nodded and motioned to his son to get back on the ship. Once they were all loaded up they began making their way to Ba Sing Se to help out in the fighting. They knew it would take them a few hours to reach it but they still had to try and hope that they could get there to provide some help if they were needed.

Lyra decided to go to the Engine Room where Toph was located.

Hakoda, now free to think, looked forward and finally realize that with Ozai _defeated _that the war was over. He didn't know what Aang had done and he personally didn't care. As long as Ozai was no longer a threat he wouldn't care. He was happy to believe that he was gone. But the impact of him being gone hit hard. What was he going to do now? The great fear of every soldier was now about to happen and he worried for them all.

(-)

Lyra found Toph in the Engine Room right where she had left her. In order to make sure the ship ran smoothly they needed survivors to work down here. Under normal circumstance Lyra would have wanted Naruto for this part of the job. His clones could easily do what these guys could and there wouldn't be the risk of any sneak attacks in their sleep. Sokka was out of the question. Hakoda was out of the question for certain, along with Suki. So that left Toph and Lyra to do this part of the job.

Toph sat in a chair made of a metal with two dead soldiers underneath her.

"What happened?" Lyra asked.

Toph rolled his eyes. "They tried to kill me so I killed them."

(-)

Iroh stood beside Calamity and wanted to thank him personally but couldn't find it in him. The man was a monster. But Iroh was willing to say that he had been a big help. Calamity, the only man that could best him in a tactical war, stood beside him. Iroh knew his limits. Calamity was ahead of him in more ways than one. And he was proud but scared to stand beside him.

"It's finished."

Iroh cast a quick glance at him.

"The war is over. And now you can rebuild what war destroyed."

Iroh nodded mutely and looked out among the ruins of Ba Sing Se. They had taken great measure to ensure that the damage was limited, but the Fire Nation hadn't cared. They had burned anything in their way to destroy their enemies. The major parts that had suffered were the Outer Ring and Middle Ring was he had once been. Homes were destroyed. Shops were left as nothing but burning husks of their former glory. Ba Sing Se would take time to rebuild, but they could rebuild it. It was just a matter of time.

The dead were given great care and brought before everyone. Fire Nation soldiers that had been slain were brought into an orderly row as a show of respect and would be sent off to the Fire Nation to be buried. This was ordered by the Order of the White Lotus.

The others received the same treatment. The Order of the White Lotus were brought and left to lay in a row at the feet of their comrades that still stood. The Assassins were doing the same and some stood over certain members with tears in their eyes while others had a blank expression, no doubt brought on by the memories that were now flooding them. A chance to stop and reflect had never been something for them to do. They had always been moving and fighting, never stopping. Now they were stopping and looking back.

Blindside stood over the fallen body of Answerer who lay next to Geo and Gail. Inferno, Blink, and Ty Lee stood in front of them. There were others that had fallen, but none among the Top Ten. To the surviving Assassins it was a testament to their power. To others it was a sign of their luck to live through it all.

Iroh took a deep breath and looked up to the sky. The comet had long since passed and its awesome power going with it, but he felt that a piece of it was still with him. "What will the Assassins do now?"

Calamity reached for his mask and thought about removing it but decided not to. "I don't know. But I assure you that we'll be in the shadows watching, waiting, and hoping that we are never used for war again."

"Life has a funny of way of repeating tragedies such as these. Do not think that this will be the last war or that you will never be needed again."

"Humanity will continue to fight. They will fight to live. Fight to hate. Fight to destroy and take what doesn't belong to them. But they will fight and so will we. They will use their evil to destroy what they see as a greater evil. No one can remain steadfast and righteously just in the face of any evil they face. They will always stain their hands with evil to destroy evil. That is and will always be the nature of Humanity."

Iroh closed his eyes tightly and wished that his words hadn't stung as much as they did. "You truly hate us? Don't you?"

"You? No. I hate Humanity, including myself."

He decided he'd had enough of Iroh and walked towards the fallen. He stood over the corpse of Juri. She was a proud white haired Earthbender that had a Waterbender as a birth mother and an Earthbender as a father. She chose to fight because she wanted to help and protect the world. For her actions Ba Sing Se was freed but she had died. Was that irony? She died being steadfast and justly righteous instead of staining her hands with evil.

He decided not to think on it and retreated to his tent. Calamity caught a few hours of sleep before Zentrai and the others arrived. The Order of the White Lotus was surprised to see that they had were taking Azula back to their base but never made a move under the orders of Iroh. Once they had traded her for Ty Lee and Mai they were off again.

After hugs and kisses were given out between Ty Lee and Mai to their boyfriends, along with the antidote that Zentrai had cooked for them on the way over, they decided it was time to leave.

Calamity had watched them leave before ordering his troops to leave Ba Sing See and let the Order of the White Lotus take over. After all; between the two of them, the Order of the White Lotus was the light to the world while they were their shadow. It was only fair that they receive the credit for taking back Ba Sing Se anyways. The legend of the Assassins would live on through the survivors of the Fire Nation soldiers that had occupied this place and lost it to them.

(-)

It didn't take them long to reach the captured Airship and land on it. Appa was happy to see the others and happily licked Sokka until Suki had to rescue him from the massive beast.

Zentrai had wandered off and found Aang in his room still. He didn't bother with the door. He simply leaned against the wall and rested in his own thoughts before asking Aang the ultimate question.

"_Did you kill the Fire Lord?"_

He saw it then. Aang had killed him alright. While in the Avatar State he had slain Ozai in what some might have thought the most brutal of fashions. Encased in a two slabs of rock and then superheated to volcanic levels of molten earth and super chilled to a brittle state before being thrown into the air and torn apart by Airbending that worked as a shredder and scattered to the winds was a bit extreme for Zentrai's taste, but it confirmed from Aang's thoughts and how quickly he tried to put it out of his head that Ozai was indeed dead.

Katara found him and quickly stormed up to him. _"Go talk to him," _he told her. He put a hand on her shoulder and conveyed his sympathy to her. Aang would never have believed him if he did it now, and he knew Katara probably wouldn't either, but at the moment he just didn't care. The war was over.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and thought about what he was going to do from here. Where would he go? He smiled and chuckled inwardly. He already had a game plan for the first few weeks of his life now.

_I hope Rehka doesn't end up trying to kill me. _He thought about that for a moment then shrugged. _She'll just ground me and be done with it. _He laughed and went to find Lyra. It was high time he talked to her about a few things anyways. His pride would now be put aside for once.

As he walked away he spotted Naruto and Lyra and sighed. "Is it time for us to return to our shadows?" Naruto asked.

Zentrai nodded slowly and started walking with his friends towards the next door before closing it with his bending.

(-)

"Ozai may have lost us the battle but the war is far from over. That I can assure you, your Excellency." The Black Ops leader of the Fire Nation Army smiled and stood up from his throne. He could see his Excellency in his minds' eye and knew that he was proud of his despite the setback.

A/N

Now the war is over and an Epilogue is needed. Not sure when it will be out, but we aim to have it done soon. Now for the fish scene, we weren't sure on how much heat they could take, but we don't know how long a fish can survive in high heat like that and we don't know how long it would take for them to suffocate from a lack of oxygen. It's not like we're in the mood to go outside and test this.


End file.
